About this project
New approaches to computer science education are under active development. The College Board plans to introduce a new AP course and exam (CS Principles) in the next few years. Google recently launched a portal for Exploring Computational Thinking resources. Many people — and businesses — recognize the importance of computer science education.
But none of these people have cartoons.
We're here to fill that lonely void with professional, CC-licensed illustrations. Did you watch the video? Seriously, you have to see Tim draw. Not only is it amazing to watch the process, but you can see that he really understands how to communicate visually. He did the first illustration on nights and weekends, and will now complete the series of ten.
I wish I already had these cartoons to use in my own classroom. I was even thinking about commissioning them completely out of my own pocket. As I searched for the right illustrator, a mutual friend introducted me to Tim. Together, we had an even better idea: Let's make these cartoons available to everyone, so that students and teachers everywhere can benefit. (And now that we've reached 100% of our funding goal, we have a new goal to do comic strips using the same characters if we can reach 150%!)
The illustrations will all be in a vector format so they can scale cleanly to any size. That means you'll be able to make classroom posters, include them on web pages, or print them in documents. And, most importantly, they will be licensed under Creative Commons (BY-SA) so they will be free for everyone to use forever.
"Computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists. To reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability."– Jeannette Marie Wing, Head of the Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University
You can read more about the background and genesis of this project on my blog, And Yet It Moves: http://itmoves.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/computational-thinking-illustrations/
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on May 28, 2011.
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A print of the illustration of your choice signed by the artist.
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Two prints of illustrations of your choice signed by the artist.
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A framed and matted print of an illustration of your choice signed by the artist.
Pledge $200 or more Pledge $200 or more
An original, hand-drawn, illustration (not a print!) framed, matted, and signed by the artist, Tim Piotrowski. Only one of each illustration is available!
Project By
Connected as Benjamin Chun
Benjamin Chun is a computer science teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District, a former employee of Macromedia, a fan of Hennessy Youngman, and an aggressive remixer of modern music. He's been teaching and collecting vintage math and science textbooks and audiovisual equipment for the past six years. His most recent project was http://ilearnedtoprogram.com
Tim Piotrowski is an illustrator and cartoonist living in New York. He’s worked for educational publishing, corporate communications, and his illustration work has appeared in several text books and readers. He’s done coloring work for Marvel, and had his own comics in Chicago papers. He publishes his own books, including his latest, Kool Aid Gets Fired. See his work at http://glitchworks.com
