Radford English teacher, Nathan Krahn is teaching a new class called Computer Science this school year 2019-20. This class is going to revolve around general knowledge of how computers talk to one another and getting to know programming/coding. Krahn has a big vision of introducing more computer classes into the school and be able to expand the presence of computer knowledge within Radford High School. Since computers are such a big part of life today, Krahn hopes to be able to teach kids general basics of what’s going to be the future.

 “The computer science field has been growing at an incredible rate and is a great opportunity for students who are interested,” he said. 

He knows that as computers surround us and become more of a necessity for everyday life. We carry them around with us everywhere we go, use them to travel and they are used to create everyday objects around us. He sees that are inevitable and for people to understand the basics would give people a large advantage in life for the future. Even if it’s basic knowledge it will be able to help them get the gist of what is happening around them. 

The basis of the class will have to do with more activity based learning rather than a stand and lecture class. Krahn wants his students to learn critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. Rather than just learning about computers he wants his students to walk away with the knowledge of how to solve any problem and think it through. Instead of just learning how the systems work and what they do, the students will be more involved with these systems, building them for themselves and coding it. The class will also go over social media such as Facebook and how it creates its algorithm to be able to advertise to audiences and how it knows just what audiences want before they even do. 

Krahn sees the field of computer science as one for the future. He plans on using this class as a base building block for the next classes to come. He also hopes to work with Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) in the future and intertwine the two programs. Along with intertwining programs he hopes to add in more classes around computer science and continue to educate. Sign ups for new classes begin during Project Aries in the second semester.