Chrystalla Mouza - US grants

The University of Delaware proposes Partner4CS, a project to design and evaluate a comprehensive set of professional development opportunities for middle and high school computer science teachers. Delaware, like many other states, does not have teacher certification in computer science, CSTA chapters, or a defined educational path that would prepare computer science teachers. Partner4CS aims to circumvent these problems. The project brings an interdisciplinary team -- including university faculty and undergraduates from the computer science, math education, and educational research disciplines -- that has strong engineering outreach and evaluation credentials. The team will develop (1) a 3-track summer professional development institute bringing together G6-12 teachers and high school students for skills development, teaching pedagogy, and community building; (2) an online learning environment that provides teachers with instant access to pedagogical and curricular support and means to communicate regularly with other teachers and university faculty; (3) a new college service learning 1-credit course weekly alternating undergraduate service to teachers in the classroom with college classroom sessions for planning and reflection; and (4) quarterly Saturday morning teacher workshops for G6-12 teachers and students to continue the summer professional development throughout the academic year. Carefully mentored undergraduates will assist in these programs, in turn gaining from interdisciplinary collaboration, teaching and lesson planning, and the opportunity to experience first-hand the potential impact of their computing expertise in helping others. Their service may also contribute to an improvement in the participation of underrepresented students in computing at the both the college and at the high school levels. Partner4CS will build on the CS PIs' experience in partnering computer science undergraduates in service learning with middle school teachers and on the Education PIs' established partnerships with regional schools for education student teaching experiences. It will leverage both the university's math education major requirement of taking computer science, and the timing of the University of Delaware replacing its current CS0 course by CS Principles in Fall 2012.

The University of Delaware and its partners are building on their previous, NSF-funded Partner4CS project to create research-based, sustainable models for teacher preparation and promote the implementation of the AP CS Principles curriculum throughout Delaware. Partner4CS has provided professional development (PD) for high school and middle school CS teachers, created a Field Experiences in Teaching Computer Science university course for CS undergraduate, and established strong partnerships with school districts, teachers, policy makers, CSTA, and state-level STEM leaders supporting teachers in their classrooms.

This project seeks to build on that work to increase its reach and sustainability through a coherent set of activities that partner higher education institutions, faculty in CS, educational researchers, and policy makers. The implementation plan focuses on 4 objectives. The first establishes university certificate programs that prepares pre-service and in-service teachers from a variety of STEM fields to teach CS with evidenced-based pedagogy. The second expands the Field Experience in Teaching Computer Science course for undergraduates to other institutions of higher education. The third develops a new track of summer PD that prepares teachers to support creative project-based CS learning, and the fourth organizes a day-long summit for educators in K-12 and higher education, district leaders, and industry professionals, to discuss the teaching of CS in K-12 schools and strategies for increasing diverse participation in the new CS Pathway.

Over the 3-year period, the proposed work is expected to reach 100 additional teachers, 120 undergraduates across multiple universities, and approximately 2,500 students.

This project addresses the challenge of infusing computational thinking (CT) into a wide array of undergraduate courses from many different disciplines. It is addressing NSF calls for "computer science for all students" and also will contribute to the NSF call for infusing computer science into other STEM (and non-STEM) courses [CS+X]. Based on prior work at the precollege as well as post-secondary level, it is building and testing a promising model of change at the institutional level at the University of Delaware. This model has the potential to be a national example for the infusion of computational thinking (CT) into a general undergraduate curriculum. It also introduces and, potentially, tests the effectiveness of four important initiatives designed to further CT in the curriculum: 1) a model for change; 2) effective faculty professional development practices; 3) incorporation of peer mentoring; and 4) formative and summative assessment.

This change model builds on significant prior knowledge and experience and uses evidence-based approaches for ongoing faculty professional development, supported by trained undergraduates who act as Learning Assistants to create a functional learning community. It incorporates carefully-designed assessments of changes in faculty practice, general education courses, student learning outcomes and the impact of the structure on the change itself, building on the Association of American Colleges and Universities VALUE Rubrics, particularly the Quantitative Literacy Rubric.

This NSF INCLUDES pilot addresses the challenge of broadening participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) among minoritized youth in grades 5-8 and their access to computer science (CS), which is recognized as integral to all STEM disciplines. This project will specifically focus on developing and understanding computing experiences intentionally designed to strengthen mathematical skills utilizing culturally responsive pedagogy. Culturally responsive pedagogy integrates knowledge relevant to students' identities and communities with computational learning activities, and maximizes the potential for increasing engagement, competence, and belonging of underrepresented youth in computing. This pilot will be situated in community-based organizations, including Boys and Girls Clubs and Public Libraries, with the support of industry partners and the local Department of Education. Given the role of community-based organizations and libraries across the nation for community engagement and educational enrichment, this work represents an exciting opportunity for spreading into thousands of libraries and community centers across the nation, thereby having collective impact that materializes CS for All.

This project will engage minoritized youth in grades 5-8. The overarching vision is to establish a scalable model for providing these students with recurrent opportunities to create computational artifacts that are culturally-responsive to their community contexts. In addition, there will be an explicit and simultaneous focus on strengthening students' mathematical skills. The project has four goals: (1) facilitate culturally-responsive learning of key CS concepts and practices; (2) build youth and community knowledge around positive impacts of computing on local communities; (3) increase participants' knowledge, confidence and interest in becoming creators of computing innovations; and (4) strengthen mathematical skills through intentional computing experiences. The project will adapt and implement CS modules from the NSF-funded Exploring Computer Science curriculum, and will intentionally reinforce mathematics skills and community engagement. It will design and implement a culturally-responsive training model for establishing community instructors who can support CS project learning. Finally, it will create instruments for monitoring project goals and participant outcomes. Due to the collaboration with community-based organizations present in cities across the nation, the model has strong potential to scale up regionally and nationally.

Children ages 8-12 spend an increasingly large amount of time online consuming digital media on computers, tablets and smartphones. Educating children at an early age of the dangers that exist online is critical for safeguarding against such dangers and helping children become responsible digital citizens. This project will develop and implement a promising approach to cybersecurity education that utilizes interactive stories to advance children's learning of online safety, privacy and security. The project will deliver these stories on a social robot, which can autonomously interact with students through a set of rules. The use of social robots as learning companions will provide students with an interactive experience and will promote greater engagement and interest in cybersecurity.

There are four goals driving this work: (1) iteratively design a collection of interactive stories addressing key cybersecurity concepts; (2) prototype the stories on a social robot; (3) increase student knowledge of key cybersecurity concepts, understanding of the importance of cybersecurity, and potential interest in cybersecurity careers; and (4) create instruments for monitoring project goals and participant outcomes. The work will be situated in schools and community-based organizations, serving a diverse population, including students who are traditionally underrepresented in computing. Ongoing research as well as formative and summative evaluation will help identify insights and lessons learned for advancing cybersecurity education and broadening student participation in computing. Given the wide attention on cybersecurity in the workforce, this work will serve as a model for promoting changes in K-12 education in a manner that supports students' learning by using cutting edge technologies.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

While several efforts to improve access to computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) competencies are currently underway at the middle and high school level, changes must now be made across the entire education system since it is during upper elementary grades that students make decisions related to future engagement with computing. This project is a partnership between the University of Delaware (UD) and the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) to build sustainable capacity towards the implementation of newly adopted CS standards in grades K-12, starting at the elementary level. Specifically, the partnership will focus on racially minoritized students, females, and those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. By providing elementary school students with exposure to CS early on, the project seeks to increase the number and diversity of students selecting a CS course or CS-related pathway during middle and high-school. The partnership has four key goals: (a) adapt an already promising professional development (PD) program to help teachers in grades 3-5 build knowledge of CT content and pedagogy; (b) address issues of equity by focusing on culturally-responsive content and pedagogy as well as impacts of computing on local communities; (c) build capacity in teachers for the development and pilot testing of interdisciplinary CT-integrated literacy and math modules and associated classroom assessments for grades 3-5; and (d) establish a publicly accessible repository of culturally-responsive CT-integrated modules and associated resources to facilitate modest scale up in diverse contexts. The purposeful integration of CT into literacy and math using research-based practices will put elementary students on a trajectory that prepares them to use CT in middle school, high school, and beyond. Through these efforts, the project expects to reach 60 teachers who will, in turn, reach approximately 1,500 students. The curriculum development process, PD, materials, and assessment tools will be disseminated through a summit, workshops, publications, presentations, and a web-based searchable repository. This project is jointly funded by the Computer Science for All program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

The project will be conducted in the context of a networked improvement community (NIC) and will be grounded in design-based implementation research. Researchers and practitioners will work together to collaboratively design, pilot, and study PD and instructional approaches focusing on the implementation of the CS standards in grades 3-5. Further researchers will study (a) the impact of the adapted PD program on teacher learning; (b) the implementation of integrated CT in different contexts and with diverse learners, particularly those traditionally underrepresented in computing; (b) the impact of integrated CT on students' CT learning, attitudes, and interest towards CT; and (c) the opportunities and challenges associated with integrated CT across different contexts. Data will be collected through multiple sources and will be analyzed in ways that illuminate similarities and differences among various groups of students in order to ensure the promise of CS for All.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.