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

伍斯特理工学院与布朗大学和东北大学一起提出了Bootstrap计划，该计划旨在激发学生，特别是那些来自代表性不足的群体的学生，在他们在高中做出职业生涯限制性学术选择之前，对计算感兴趣。代表性不足的学生往往很少有机会获得计算机教育，更不用说一个桥梁，在计算或其支持学科的其他课程。 Bootstrap是一门计算机课程，让学生参与动画，目标是代数和坐标几何的核心技能，并且从中学到大学水平的计算垂直整合。 后两个特点--与数学的深度联系和向高级课程的迁移路径--使Bootstrap与其他针对大学预科生的入门计算程序区分开来。Bootstrap的代数联系在于它的编程模型，这与其他入门编程项目不同。 通过将编程与代数联系起来，Bootstrap加强了各种STEM和计算职业的基本材料，并有可能融入传统的中学课程。Bootstrap目前通过与国家和地区课后组织（例如Citizen Schools和AfterZones）合作，在Google、IBM、Thompson Financial和Rockstar等公司志愿者教师的帮助下，部署到代表性不足的中学生中。在过去的四年里，超过450名学生（70%是少数民族，70%是免费或减少午餐）参加了这个项目;在仅仅九次课堂会议之后，大多数人都用代数来创建自己设计的运行计算机游戏。该提案有三个主要目标：（1）进一步部署中学课程，（2）以课外形式提炼、部署和测试高级（高中水平）课程，以及（3）开发维持该计划并将其扩展到手机游戏编程所需的软件基础设施。在提案期间，Bootstrap将提供给700名学生，PI将收集关于Bootstrap如何影响学生的学术选择以及代数和坐标几何的看法的宝贵数据。

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.