A Whole New World by Christopher

A Whole New World by Christopher - August 2015 Scholarship Essay

Imagine a world you control at the touch of your fingertips. You can make it a world of trees or a world of books or a world of cars or whatever you want. You can make objects interact with each other however you want. You can add to your world, modify its basic building blocks or even destroy it completely just to start over from scratch whenever you want. Would you believe me if I told you this world exists? Not only does this world exist, but we all have access to it. And because we all have access to it, we can even make parts of the world interact with each other, so that the product is something so magnificently wonderful it’s unimaginable! Do you want to know the name of this world? This is the world of computer science. This world of computer science is one I would like to see everyone learn about and especially implemented in American high schools.

One of the main reasons I want students to learn about computer science in high school is because of its uniqueness as a subject. If I had to describe computer science, I would say it is unlike any one subject but rather a discipline of contradictions. Computer science can be heavily mathematically oriented especially when you get into the theoretical side of it. Sometimes you will be presented a problem in computer science, and you need to have a clear - cut, logical approach to it. If you hope to just drift by or rely on your gut, you will fail. It takes time. It takes patience. However, computer science allows freedom of expression as well. When you have a problem you are trying to answer, you can take multiple paths to get to the same solution. Sometimes, you won’t even have a problem, but instead you will just be motivated to go and build something, almost like a painter might spontaneously decide to paint. And once you reach that solution, you have to program it on the computer using words and phrases strange to you, but full of meaning to the computer, almost like a foreign language.

A problem in computer science isn’t a problem in the typical sense of the word. Even though a problem in a typical classroom setting might be like “X + 6 = 2Z. Solve for X.” or “Which presidents enacted a policy of trustbusting?”, a problem in computer science is usually more complex. To give you a more concrete sense of what I mean by a problem in computer science, here is a problem similar to one I have encountered in my own experience: “Jerry is a musician and must visit different concerts, but there is more than one way to get to each concert. Determine the least amount of time to get to each concert.” From the outset, it looks simple enough. You just have to make Jerry take the shortest route to each concert, so he spends the least amount of time on the road. However, the tricky part is that you won’t know what the routes look like. The problem will give you one or two example routes, from which you have to formulate a general solution that could work with any route presented to it. Another kind problem you might experience would be like “Design a web site for a fast food company. Make sure it includes the menu and their logo.” This is the kind of problem that really showcases the freedom of expression you have. You could pretty much design the web site any way you want as long as it meets the requirements of including a menu and the logo.

This leads to the point that computer science is becoming a huge element of the work world. Many new technologies and gadgets are emerging, and old technologies are constantly getting replaced as they become outdated. Thus, studying computer science in high school would allow students marketable skills. Employers are looking for people with computer expertise especially since our world is becoming more digitalized. Social media is becoming increasingly popular around the world, paper cash is disappearing to electronic methods of payment and phones are becoming our primary mediums to connect with the world.

Computer science is a subject unlike any other. Nowadays, because of advances in computer science, cars can drive themselves and robots can outplay the best chess minds. Who knows what will come next?