BPC-DP: Deploying a Vertically-Integrated Computing Curriculum to At-Risk Students

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Worcester Polytechnic Institute, together with Brown University, and Northeastern University, proposes Bootstrap, a program to excite students, particularly those from under-represented groups, about computing before they make career-limiting academic choices in high school. Under-represented students frequently have little access to computing education, much less one that bridges to other courses in computing or its supporting disciplines. Bootstrap is a computing curriculum that engages students with animation, targets core skills in algebra and coordinate geometry, and is vertically integrated from middle-school through college-level computing. The latter two features--deep connection to mathematics and a migration path to advanced curricula--distinguish Bootstrap from other introductory computing programs aimed at pre-college students.Bootstrap's algebraic connections lie in its programming model, which differs from that of other introductory programming projects. By tying programming to algebra, Bootstrap reinforces essential material that underlies a wide array of STEM and computing careers and has the potential to integrate into a conventional middle-school curriculum. Bootstrap is currently deployed to under-represented middle-school students through partnerships with national and regional after-school organizations (such as Citizen Schools and AfterZones) with the help of volunteer teachers from companies such as Google, IBM, Thompson Financial, and Rockstar. In the last four years, over 450 students (70% minority, 70% receiving free or reduced lunch) have taken the program; after just nine class meetings, most have used algebra to create a running computer game of their own design. This proposal has three broad goals: (1) to further deploy the middle-school program, (2) to distill, deploy, and test an advanced (high-school level) course in the extra-curricular format, and (3) to develop software infrastructure needed to both sustain the program and extend its reach to programming games for cellphones. During the proposal period, Bootstrap will be offered to 700 students and the PIs will gather valuable data on how Bootstrap impacts students' academic choices and perceptions of algebra and coordinate geometry.