The Institute for Computing Education at Georgia Tech

1
The Institute for Computing Education at Georgia
Tech

• Barbara Ericson
• Georgia Tech
• ericson_at_cc.gatech.edu
• http//coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt

2
History of ICE

• Joint effort by the Georgia DOE and Georgia Tech
• Started in 2004
• AP CS teachers needed training in Java and OO
• Only 44 schools offering AP CS out of gt 400

3
Goals of ICE

• Increase the number of qualified computing
  teachers in Georgia
• Train teachers with no formal background in
  Computer Science
• Typically business teachers
• Increase the number and diversity of computing
  students in Georgia

4
Original Computing Courses
Computer Applications Word, Powerpoint, Excel
IT Foundations History, Networking, Web Dev
Programming and Systems Management Programming,
database, GUI, etc
Advanced Placement Computer Science
5
Curriculum Revision

• An external review found that Georgia's standards
• Did not follow national standards
• Were too broad and shallow
• Lacked rigor
• Were content based not performance based

6
Revision Committee

• A committee of high school computing teachers,
  university faculty, and DOE staff created new
  performance-based standards
• Committee met 5 times from Sept 2005 to Feb 2006
• Created 3 new computing courses
• Based on the ACM model curriculum for K-12

http//csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/ACMK12CSModel.h
tml
7
Comparing Curriculums
ACM Model Curriculum
Georgia Curriculum
Level 2 (II) Computer Science in the Modern World
Level 2 (II) Computing in the Modern World
Level 3 (III) Computer Science as Analysis and
Design
Level 3 (III) Beginning Programming
Level 3 (III) Intermediate Programming
Level 4 (IV) Topics in CS Advanced Placement CS
Level 4 (IV) Topics in CS Advanced Placement CS
8
Professional Development

• Summer workshops
• Grown from two weeks in 2004
• To four weeks in 2008
• School-year workshops
• LEGO NXT robots
• Alice
• Media Computation
• Games
• AP Exam

9
Teacher Training Results

• AP CS has grown from 44 schools in Georgia in
  2004 to over 90 schools in 2009
• https//apcourseaudit.epiconline.org/ledger/
• 304 unique teachers from 199 schools and 12 states

10
Summer 2009 Workshops

• Computing in the Modern World
• PicoCrickets, Scratch, Alice, and CS Unplugged
  Activities
• Beginning Programming
• Media Computation in Python and IPRE robots
• Intermediate Programming
• Media Computation in Java and Greenfoot
• AP CS A
• Alice and Media Computation, GridWorld,
  Greenfoot, etc

11
PicoCrickets

• Invention kit integrating art and technology
• http//www.picocricket.com/

12
Scratch

• Free software from MIT for creating 2D animations
  and games
• http//scratch.mit.edu

13
Alice 2.2

• Free software from CMU for creating 3D movies and
  games
• http//www.alice.org

14
Alice 3.0 Beta

• Free software from CMU for creating 3D movies and
  games
• http//www.alice.org
• Includes the Electronic Arts Sims characters
• Can import into Netbeans IDE as Java code

15
CS Unplugged

• Free materials for teaching computing concepts
  without a computer
• http//csunplugged.org/

Binary Numbers
Network Deadlocks
16
Media Computation

• Writing textual programs to manipulate media
• http//www.mediacomputation.org

Soup-Audio Collage
17
IPRE Robots

• Parallax scribbler robots with color camera and
  Bluetooth
• http//www.roboteducation.org/

18
Greenfoot

• Free software from the Un. of Kent and Deakin Un.
  for building 2D simulations and games in Java
• http//www.greenfoot.org

19
Alice and Media Computation

• Teaching computing concepts in Alice first and
  then covering the same concepts in Java with
  Media Computation
• http//home.cc.gatech.edu/TeaParty

20
GridWorld

• Advanced Placement Computer Science Case Study
• Example of a larger program for students to learn
  from
• Used to teach object-oriented concepts

21
Wearable Computers

• Developed by Leah Buechley
• Now of MIT
• Very small computers, sensors, and lights
• Connected with conductive thread

22
Pleo Robots

• Devloped by Ugobe
• The creator of the Furby
• Now owned by Innvo Labs
• Programmed using MySkit or the Pleo Dev Kit

23
Lending Library for Teachers

• We lend our LEGO NXT robots and PicoCricket kits
• Up to 3 weeks at a time
• Up to 12 kits per teacher
• Must leave a deposit
• And lose deposit if missing parts or not sorted

24
Certification Issues in CS

• Most states do not require training in CS for
  teachers
• Georgia does not require any training
• Business teachers are considered in field for CS

http//csta.acm.org/Communications/sub/Documents.h
tml
25
Certification Issues in Georgia

• In 2005 the Georgia Professional Standards
  Commission changed the rules so that only
  business teachers could teach AP CS
• We would have lost an entire district of math
  teachers who were teaching AP CS
• And we had a physics teacher and 2 music teachers
• Georgia Tech was able to convince the GA PSC to
  allow anyone with a valid teaching certificate to
  teach AP CS
• But, we wanted to ensure that teachers had
  sufficient training in computer science

26
CS Endorsement

• Committee formed to create an endorsement based
  on the NCATE standards in 2006
• Teachers, university faculty, and Georgia
  Professional Standards Commission
• Worked for 1 year
• Posted for 6 months for comments
• Endorsement passed in Dec 2008
• Only voluntary for now
• Can be added to any type of teaching
  certification
• Two schools will offer it in Georgia
• Kennesaw State University fall 2009
• Columbus State University online in 2010

27
Student Outreach

• Summer Camps
• High school since 2004
• Middle school since 2006
• Elem school (4th and 5th) since 2009
• Weekend and after-school computing activities
• Girl Scouts since 2005
• YWCA since 2007
• Cool Girls, Boys and Girls Clubs, Boy Scouts 2008

28
Summer Camps

• Our camps always fill
• So we started training and providing "seed money"
  to other colleges and universities in Georgia in
  2007
• From NSF BPC grant
• We have started 8 additional summer camps in
  Georgia since 2007

http//coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/915
29
Girl Scout Outreach

• 2005-2006 40
• LEGO robots
• 2006-2007 80
• LEGO robots and Alice
• 2007-2008 428
• 2008-2009 455
• LEGO, Alice, PicoCrickets, Scratch

30
YWCA Teen Girls in Tech

• Afterschool program at 4 area middle schools
• Worked with since spring 2007
• Mentored 2 FIRST LEGO League teams

31
Cool Girls

• Low income middle school girls
• Started in fall 2008

32
Boys and Girls Clubs

• Worked with nearby location
• Also did webinar on Scratch

33
Computing Competitions

• AP Bowl
• Practice Advanced Placement CS Exam
• Scratch new in 2010
• Alice new in 2010
• RoboCup Jr. proposed
• Dance
• Rescue
• Soccer

34
Results?

• One of our summer camp kids from 2005 is now a
  3rd year CS major
• Just won most outstanding Junior
• Wants to go to graduate school
• We get statistically significant changes in
  attitudes towards computing
• In just a 4 hour workshop
• Using PicoCrickets, Scratch, and Alice
• Kids report an increase in interest in CS

35
CS Education Info

• The 4 years of math and science push
• Texas gives math credit for AP CS
• Georgia gives science credit for AP CS (just
  removed!)
• The 10,000 teachers by 2015 push from Jan Cuny of
  the National Science Foundation
• Development of a new AP course in computer
  science
• Want a course that appeals to more people
• Rebooting unemployed IT workers to be teachers
• Georgia's alternative teacher prep program
• High School Program
• Training high school students to be helpers

36
Operation Reboot

• Transform 30 unemployed IT workers into high
  school computing teachers
• 10 per year for 3 years
• IT worker
• Paid a stipend of 3410 a month for 11 months
• Co-teaches 2 computing classes / sections per
  year with the existing computing teacher
• Earns initial teaching certificate through GaTAPP
• And a CS endorsement
• http//coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/1077

37
Timeline

• First group of 10 selected by Thanksgiving
• Begin training Nov 30th
• Start in classroom in Jan 2010
• Second group of 10 selected by June 2010
• Begin training July 2010
• Start in classroom in Aug 2010
• Third group of 10 selected by June 2011
• Begin training July 2011
• Start in classroom in Aug 2011

38
How can you help?

• Visit schools for career day
• Allow a computing teacher to shadow you
• Volunteer to help your local AP CS teacher
• Or get your school to offer AP CS
• Mentor a robot competition team
• Or assist
• Do workshops for youth serving organizations
• Offer summer camps

39
Funding

• Georgia Tech and the Georgia Department of
  Education have both supported this effort
• Along with the Toyota Foundation, Microsoft,
  Atlanta Women's Foundation, and the National
  Science Foundation