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

伍斯特理工学院、布朗大学和东北大学提出了Bootstrap项目，旨在激发学生，特别是那些来自代表人数不足的群体的学生，在他们在高中做出限制职业生涯的学术选择之前，对计算机知识感兴趣。代表不足的学生往往很少有机会接受计算机教育，更不用说连接到其他计算机课程或其支持学科的教育了。Bootstrap是一门让学生接触动画的计算课程，目标是代数和坐标几何的核心技能，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过渡--将Bootstrap与其他针对大学前学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。通过将编程与代数捆绑在一起，Bootstrap强化了支撑大量STEM和计算机职业生涯的基本材料，并有可能整合到传统的中学课程中。Bootstrap目前通过与国家和地区课后组织(如公民学校和AfterZones)合作，在谷歌、IBM、Thompson Financial和Rockstar等公司的志愿者教师的帮助下，向代表性不足的中学生部署。在过去的四年里，超过450名学生(70%的少数族裔，70%的学生享受免费或减价午餐)参加了这个项目；仅在9次班会之后，大多数人就使用代数来创建他们自己设计的跑步电脑游戏。这项提议有三个广泛的目标：(1)进一步部署中学计划，(2)提炼、部署和测试课外形式的高级(高中水平)课程，以及(3)开发所需的软件基础设施，以支持该计划并将其扩展到手机游戏编程。在推荐期内，我们会向700名学生提供自学计划，督导主任将搜集有关自学计划如何影响学生的学业选择及对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.