davidalln

I have been reading an unfortunately large amount of articles here on Hacker News seemingly deterring prospective students like myself from entering a university, especially from the field of Computer Science. They cite large tuition/living costs and "wastes of time" as not worth the potential four year education gained. These articles and blog posts claim that jumping straight into industry is an acceptable and perhaps even favorable alternative.

I refuse to buy into this idea as I crave the challenge that I feel a good computer science program can bring as well as want to experience the good ol' college life. Are there still places out there that offer a diverse undergraduate Computer Science program that goes beyond teaching Java and C++ and focuses on the application of these technologies to create things? Are there schools out there that will let undergrads touch research and tackle the problems that current computer scientists face today? Or is this asking too much of a pre-graduate program?

I have been given the task to teach programming basics to the build and design members of my robotics team (FRC #2415). We are constrained to C++ as a language. What are the best methods for teaching intelligent people with little to no programming experience the basics (from simple things like loops and if-elses to more complex topics such as inheritance and pointers)?