Collaborative Research: Scaling up an Innovative Approach for Attracting Students to Computing

尽管预计未来计算机科学（CS）和信息技术（IT）领域的工作岗位将迅速增加，但美国高校的计算机专业入学人数正在急剧下降。这反映出参加AP计算机科学考试的学生人数有所下降。为了解决这个问题，该项目将建立全州范围的大学、初中和高中教师网络，他们将在学年期间提供研讨会和持续支持。这些网络将建立在三个不同的州（北卡罗来纳州、南卡罗来纳州和密西西比州）。学院和大学教师将直接与初中和高中教师合作，教授和学习创新和有效的方法来介绍计算和计算机编程，并将计算思维融入其他学科。这个项目扩大了以前的一个成功的合作项目，为学生和教师使用Alice 3D编程环境。该方法侧重于在面向对象的交互式环境中基本编程概念和问题解决技术的强大核心。该项目的外部评估将包括收集教师教学和学生入学和表现的定性和定量数据。该项目将直接培训约265名教师，并为高级教师提供支持，以便他们为其所在地区的其他教师提供后续培训。这个项目有可能增加面向对象编程概念和解决问题的教学的数量和有效性，面向大量的初中和高中学生。通过对中学和高中教师进行拟议方法的培训，并通过提供支持网络和建立社区，该项目应该能够影响三个州的学生。开发的课程材料将存储在一个可搜索的在线数据库中，供所有教师免费使用。为了让计算、计算机科学、编程和计算思维对初中生和高中生更具吸引力，项目团队希望鼓励更多的学生在大学阶段主修STEM，尤其是计算机。

US college and universities are experiencing a dramatic decline in enrollment of computing majors, despite a predicted, rapid increase in future jobs in the computer science (CS) and information technology (IT) sectors. This reflects a decline in the number of students taking the AP computer science exam. To address this issue, this project will build statewide networks of college, middle school, and high school faculty who will offer workshops and provide continuing support during the academic year. The networks will be set up in three different states (North Carolina, South Carolina, and Mississippi). College and university faculty will work directly with middle school and high school teachers in teaching and learning innovative and effective ways of introducing computing and computer programming, and in incorporating computational thinking into other disciplines. This project scales up a previous, successful collaborative project for students and teachers using the Alice 3D programming environment. The approach focuses on a strong core of fundamental programming concepts and problem-solving techniques in an object-oriented, interactive environment. The project's external evaluation will include the collection of qualitative and quantitative data on teacher instruction and students' enrollment and performance. The project will train approximately 265 teachers directly, and provide support for master teachers to provide subsequent training for other teachers in their home districts. This project has the potential to increase the amount and effectiveness of instruction in object-oriented programming concepts and problem-solving to a large number of middle school and high school students. By training middle school and high school teachers in the proposed approach, and by providing support networks and building community, the project should be able to impact students throughout three states. Developed curricular materials will be stored in an online, searchable database to be freely available to all teachers. In making computing, computer science, programming, and computational thinking more attractive to middle school and high school students, the project team expects to encourage more students to major in STEM, and particularly computing, at the college level.