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Excellence
teaching
in
Phil Adams’ commitment to creating
a learning environment that inspires
students to be innovative, passionate
and curious has deservedly won him
this year’s Marily Scanlon Excellence in
Teaching Award.
Phil used the award to meet IT
professionals in Christchurch and in
the United States, including Google
executives in both New York and Silicon
Valley, science professors from MIT and
the Senior Vice-President of Software at
Sungard, a global software technology
company.
Phil says his visits focused around
identifying what traits and skills he
should be aiming to create in his
students that would encourage them to
pursue problems and projects in their
own time.
“I want to create a culture of ‘what if?’
or ‘I wonder if?’, where students are
constantly asking questions, coming up
with ideas of their own, and taking on the
challenge of a project just because they
want to see if they can do it and for the
sheer enjoyment of a challenge.”
During his visits, Phil found common
themes emerging. “Everyone felt that
students should possess curiosity,
tenacity, passion and initiative. They
looked for students who had the curiosity
and initiative to identify problems and the
tenacity and passion to work on them no
matter how difficult. While they had to
have a strong ability in Maths, students
also needed a broad range of interests
beyond Computer Science.”
A shared concern was also the lack of
female Computer Science students.
“A competent female programmer is
almost certain to be head-hunted by
companies as they are in such short
supply,” he says.
While the trip reinforced the already
established aims of Phil’s digital
technology programme at St Andrew’s,
it did generate some new ideas.
“We are going to arrange guest speakers
from the IT industry to visit the school
and present to the students,” says Phil.
“These talks are also intended to capture
the interest of Years 9 and 10 students
before they enter NCEA. I’d also like to
start a Computer Science Club at the
College and affiliate it with the national
one being organised by the University of
Canterbury.”
Phil says establishing this relationship
would give students access to excellent
resources and, by formalising the
programme, will set them up with a
highly-credible qualification.
This year Phil introduced new Computer
Science achievement levels so students
now study things like algorithms,
artificial intelligence, encryption and
formal languages, which will prepare
them well for tertiary study. Phil also
plans to introduce similar topics in his
junior extension Maths classes to gain
the interest of the top Maths students.
The Year 13 class will change from a
one-project course, to two projects;
“To ensure that students don’t just
focus on one set of skills,” says Phil.
He says that as students are often
curious, but often don’t know where
to look for the problems that might
actually stimulate them, he sees it as
his role to locate, and make available,
as many resources as possible.
It was also obvious during the trip that
Technology and Computer Science are
definitely not all work and no play. “Both
the MIT professors and Google people
strongly felt that the best candidates
that they see have a wide range of
interests outside of Computer Science,
and that these candidates aren’t just
interested in other things;
they are
highly dedicated to them.”
Phil Adams on the MIT campus next to the Alchemist sculpture by Jaume Plensa that represents
a thinking man comprised of numbers and maths functions.