%0 Conference Paper %1 Buchman:1956:CPC:800258.808964 %A Buchman, Aaron L. %B Proceedings of the 1956 11th ACM National Meeting %C New York, NY, USA %D 1956 %I ACM %K 1956 high-school history programming %P 118--121 %R 10.1145/800258.808964 %T Computer Programming and Coding at the High School Level %U http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/800258.808964 %X This paper concerns a course in computer programming and coding being offered at the Hutchinson Central Technical High School, Buffalo, New York. The course, which runs one term and is open to seniors studying their fourth year of mathematics, was completed by the first group of pupils, and is now being given to the second group, most of whom intend to major in a branch of engineering at college. About two years ago, the author broached the idea that the field of machine computation contained much material that could prove a challenge to high school seniors with a good mathematical background, and that such a course could interest pupils in a field that showed much promise of absorbing a large number of competent mathematicians. In order to make such a course concrete and provide motivation, he proposed that his pupils build an automatic digital computer. To be an effective teaching device, it was desirable that such a machine contain (1) an input unit able to read from a tape, (2) a control unit which could interpret the taped orders, especially those relating to branching routines, (3) a storage unit capable of storing several numbers, and (4) an arithmetic unit which could do rapid addition, subtraction, multiplication, and perhaps division. The Buffalo Board of Education made one thousand dollars available, and under the guidance of the author and using the plans and circuits he drew up, the pupils in his advanced mathematics classes built a machine having the above specifications. The construction and wiring of the automatic computer, an electromagnetic relay machine, took about six months, and was a fine experience for the pupils involved.

@inproceedings{Buchman:1956:CPC:800258.808964, abstract = {This paper concerns a course in computer programming and coding being offered at the Hutchinson Central Technical High School, Buffalo, New York. The course, which runs one term and is open to seniors studying their fourth year of mathematics, was completed by the first group of pupils, and is now being given to the second group, most of whom intend to major in a branch of engineering at college. About two years ago, the author broached the idea that the field of machine computation contained much material that could prove a challenge to high school seniors with a good mathematical background, and that such a course could interest pupils in a field that showed much promise of absorbing a large number of competent mathematicians. In order to make such a course concrete and provide motivation, he proposed that his pupils build an automatic digital computer. To be an effective teaching device, it was desirable that such a machine contain (1) an input unit able to read from a tape, (2) a control unit which could interpret the taped orders, especially those relating to branching routines, (3) a storage unit capable of storing several numbers, and (4) an arithmetic unit which could do rapid addition, subtraction, multiplication, and perhaps division. The Buffalo Board of Education made one thousand dollars available, and under the guidance of the author and using the plans and circuits he drew up, the pupils in his advanced mathematics classes built a machine having the above specifications. The construction and wiring of the automatic computer, an electromagnetic relay machine, took about six months, and was a fine experience for the pupils involved.}, acmid = {808964}, added-at = {2014-10-27T10:16:42.000+0100}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, author = {Buchman, Aaron L.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2d32f23278782e51878ea873ceb14e6f4/ji}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1956 11th ACM National Meeting}, description = {Computer programming and coding at the high school level}, doi = {10.1145/800258.808964}, interhash = {861aa185fae110c0f5edf2639be8227a}, intrahash = {d32f23278782e51878ea873ceb14e6f4}, keywords = {1956 high-school history programming}, numpages = {4}, pages = {118--121}, publisher = {ACM}, series = {ACM '56}, timestamp = {2014-10-27T10:16:42.000+0100}, title = {Computer Programming and Coding at the High School Level}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/800258.808964}, year = 1956 }