This course is intended to teach problem solving skills rather than how to write code in a particular language. However, it helps to learn through actual programming, so students learn the programming language Dr. Scheme. The choice of Scheme as our environment for learning how to program is based on the principles of the TeachScheme project. This approach is the same one taken in the Computer Science department at WPI. The introductory CS course for incoming WPI freshmen is taught using Dr. Scheme.
Our 'textbook' is a collection of online resources. Most notably, we use the online text, How to Design Programs, authored by Matthias Felleisen , Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, and Shriram Krishnamurthi. A hard copy of the book is also available from MIT Press. This is our primary text for the course.