What do computer scientists do?

Computer scientists solve problems and design systems by understanding and applying human knowledge and behavior. Computers, while they are fast and usually accurate, are designed to emulate human capabilities. A simple example of this is that humans do not know how to divide a number by zero - the result of dividing a number by zero is undefined. Thus, computers are designed to raise an exception when an attempt is made to divide a number by zero.

Computational thinking is a new term created by Jeannette M. Wing in her 2006 article published in Communications of the ACM, Volume 49, Issue 3. This 3-page article offers many insights into what computer science is all about. One intriguing statement from the article - to reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability - offers a challenge to our K-12 education community to emphasize computational thinking as much as we emphasize the "three R's". This article describes computational thinking, and thus computer science, as having the following characteristics:

• Conceptualizing, not programming.
• Fundamental, not rote skill.
• A way that humans, not computers, think.
• Complements and combines mathematical and engineering thinking.
• Ideas, not artifacts.