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Show ""'R,..' . ' ''XV' r ; . ' " i ' . 1 t BASIC COMPUTER By KRIS MARYON "The new computer system may be the best thing that's ever happened to our math department," stated Jeff Hollist, math teacher at Davis High School. THIS SCHOOL is the first high school in the district to install a complete up-to-date computer science program with an unlimited potential to compute data ranging from solving a math problem to ! keeping attendance statistics. The students must learn one of the computer programming languages such as fortran, cobol or basic, in order to use the computer. Each language has a precise method of expressing mathematical terms. The special language is used to type the problem or statistical data on the screen. I THE COMPUTER can then print out the results in numerical or graphical form. Math problems normally ; taking ten hours to calculate by hand are computed in less than two seconds by the corn- Instructor Lnzi Nelson explains to Principal Prin-cipal Richard S. Stevenson and student Kirk Davis how the basic computer program can be edited, np puter. The computer is joined with the state computer to give unlimited resources to train students in operating terminals, ter-minals, checking syntax errors and compiling programs. It also keeps school attendance records, grade and schedule changes with the state office. Eventually, Even-tually, all the registration and attendance will be done at Davis High; some is already being done by Mr. Garrett, career center counselor. THE STATE computer system sys-tem has been designed to accommodate ac-commodate many high schools, but until now, no one has used its great potential. It was available and the State Board of Education was willing to cooperate with Davis in using the facility. "MR. NELSON and the students had shown such a great interest in the field, they had exhausted all our resources," explained Mr. Stevenson. "I needed to explore the possibilities of a more advanced program. I had been talking to the director direc-tor of the state computer system sys-tem in Salt Lake City and he was interested in seeing how it would work to tie high school classes into the main computer. The state system has the power to accommodate accom-modate many schools in the area, but until now, no one has used its great potential. There have been many schools with computers in the office for the secretaries, but none in a classroom situation. The opportunity was available and the State Board of Education was willing to cooperate with us in using the facility. We got to be the pilot school because of the great amount of interest we had shown," concluded Mr. Stevenson. Application was made to the State Board of Education for a grant of twenty thousand dollars to buy the necessary equipment for the new computer com-puter science department. The grant made it possible to add four terminals and one printer. THE COMPUTERS are open from six-thirty in the. morning until five at night and are busy all day long. There is no worry about overworking over-working them, because the machines work better the longer they are in use. "It's worth getting up in the morning to come and do," computer science student Scott Fields remarked, "f love it." When asked if boys did better bet-ter than girls, Mr. Nelson replied, "It's not a matter of girl vs. boy, but whether you are interested in it or not. There's really no difference." Senior Sue Hanson commented, comment-ed, "Most girls are afraid of math and science field, but once they get into it, it's fantastic." fan-tastic." FOUR YEARS ago, there was a total of seventeen students-taking the computer class. Now, with the new program, enrollment has increased to almost one hundred students. The course is also available to night school students. |