How do you build a successful CS Outreach program? What does functional programming have to do with pedagogy, and how do the features of a language influence the shape and sequence of a curriculum? This presentation will appeal to language designers, teachers and professionals alike, using our Bootstrap program as a case study with which to answer these questions.

I will first discuss the evolution of the CS-Ed community in the United States, whose character has changed dramatically over the past few years. I will specifically address CSPdWeek (“CS Professional Development Week”), which is the distillation of a collaborative approach between three of the largest, research-based curricula in the US. I will discuss the tremendous opportunity that comes from using language-level approaches to build bridges between computer science and other disciplines, using Bootstrap as a case-study in how to do this successfully.

Emmanuel Schanzer is a co-director of the Bootstrap Project link and lead organizer of CSPdWeek. Earlier he studied computer science at Cornell, worked at Microsoft, taught mathematics at an under-resourced secondary school, served as primary school academic coach, and earned a doctorate in mathematics education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He mixes a mean old-fashioned.