CS 10K: Developing and Supporting Computer Science Teachers Via Strategic Partnering

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The University of Delaware proposes Partner4CS, a project to design and evaluate a comprehensive set of professional development opportunities for middle and high school computer science teachers. Delaware, like many other states, does not have teacher certification in computer science, CSTA chapters, or a defined educational path that would prepare computer science teachers. Partner4CS aims to circumvent these problems. The project brings an interdisciplinary team -- including university faculty and undergraduates from the computer science, math education, and educational research disciplines -- that has strong engineering outreach and evaluation credentials. The team will develop (1) a 3-track summer professional development institute bringing together G6-12 teachers and high school students for skills development, teaching pedagogy, and community building; (2) an online learning environment that provides teachers with instant access to pedagogical and curricular support and means to communicate regularly with other teachers and university faculty; (3) a new college service learning 1-credit course weekly alternating undergraduate service to teachers in the classroom with college classroom sessions for planning and reflection; and (4) quarterly Saturday morning teacher workshops for G6-12 teachers and students to continue the summer professional development throughout the academic year. Carefully mentored undergraduates will assist in these programs, in turn gaining from interdisciplinary collaboration, teaching and lesson planning, and the opportunity to experience first-hand the potential impact of their computing expertise in helping others. Their service may also contribute to an improvement in the participation of underrepresented students in computing at the both the college and at the high school levels. Partner4CS will build on the CS PIs' experience in partnering computer science undergraduates in service learning with middle school teachers and on the Education PIs' established partnerships with regional schools for education student teaching experiences. It will leverage both the university's math education major requirement of taking computer science, and the timing of the University of Delaware replacing its current CS0 course by CS Principles in Fall 2012.