BPC-DP: A Multi-tiered Mentoring Model (M3) for Increasing Minority and Women Participation in Computing

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The University of Alabama proposes a multi-tiered mentoring model (M3) that partners a diverse university campus with a large urban school system. The project will provide high-level instruction in computational thinking across three different age groups using a "Learn to Teach, Teach to Learn" approach. The participants will include: (1) middle and high school students from minority backgrounds, (2) their teachers, (3) minority and majority college students with secondary science education or computer science majors, (4) University educators from four interdisciplinary units (Computer Science, and the schools of Education, Engineering, and Medicine); and (5) a learning design firm dedicated to enhancing computing education through media and technology. The Specific Aims of M3 are: (1) to recruit a cadre of minority and women middle and high school students into the computing pipeline by presenting engaging mentored technology experiences, (2) to expose pre-service secondary education students to pedagogical and technical aspects of computing education, through interdisciplinary peer mentorship, (3) to extend computational expertise among high school teachers in predominantly minority schools to encourage them to actively learn and teach computer science courses in their schools, (4) to increase the retention of minority students in undergraduate computer science programs by providing them opportunities to create innovative tools for computing education, (5) to engage K-12 administrators and parents of participants through workshops that highlight the benefits of careers in computing and (6) to evaluate the effects of M3 on student and teacher performance in computing education, their aptitude and interest for this area of research and tracking of career choices among participants.