Week 9: Computer Science Education and Computer Science in Education (Lab4U)

Our guest speaker today was Komal Dadlani of Lab4U, a Chilean startup which uses smartphone technology to help provide science education. The problem Lab4U tackles is the often prohibitive cost of lab equipment. One figure that came up was the cost of a basic accelerometer, which is often around $200. However, both accelerometers and a wide variety of other sensors are found in smartphones — Lab4U unlocks this potential through mobile applications, helping students to become more involved with their education. A Confucius quote Komal brought up to illustrate the importance of this was, “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, involve me and I will understand.”

We also had the chance to experience some Lab4U experiments, including one called ‘Twister’ which measured radial acceleration. Overall, the mobile application was very user friendly and I could see younger students being more engaged with this than in a traditional lab environment.

After Komal left, we had a discussion about pre-collegiate CS education. Some initiatives we discussed were code.org, NYC CS for All, and the AP Computer Science program (no pun intended). In addition, we also talked about our early experiences with Computer Science in college and earlier. One thing that we noticed is the inclusiveness of the many recent initiatives for CS education.