CS 10K: Mobile CSP: Using Mobile Learning to Teach CS Principles in Connecticut Schools

Trinity College将与哈特福德公立学校系统、计算机科学教师协会康涅狄格州分会和其他哈特福德地区高中合作，培训约30名康涅狄格州高中教师，在目前不教授AP计算机科学的康涅狄格州高中教授AP计算机课程。该课程将基于移动的计算机科学原理课程，移动的CSP，它使用新的移动的计算语言，Android的App Inventor，提供一个严格的，基于编程的介绍计算思维。解决的主要研究问题是移动的CSP课程是否是一种有效的方式来教CS原则，它是否可以作为一个模型，以帮助培训教师的CS 10 K项目。该课程是基于项目的，并采取建构主义的方法来学习计算-即，学生通过构建自己的工件和心理模型来学习。学生项目将侧重于使用App Inventor编程语言构建对社会有用的基于位置的移动的应用程序。通过这种方式，学生的学习将与他们的兴趣密切相关，并扎根于他们的学校，家庭和社区。该课程，这是开发和测试在Trinity学院和数学与科学（GHAMAS）的大哈特福德学院作为第2阶段的试点课程之一，为大学理事会的CS原则项目，将仔细评估沿着几个方面，包括其在提高编程和解决问题的技能和学生和教师对计算机科学教育的态度的影响的功效。该移动的CSP项目有三个主要目标：（一）开发一个严格的计算机科学原理AP课程的基础上移动的计算;（二）教康涅狄格州的教师在为期6周的夏季讲习班;（三）支持参与教师在康涅狄格州的学校，目前不教AP计算机科学的AP试点课程实施。2013-2014年的教师队伍将主要来自哈特福德学区，该学区的学生大多来自计算机科学代表性不足的人口和社会经济背景。在第二年和第三年，该项目将扩展到康涅狄格州其他类似的城镇。

Trinity College, in partnership with the Hartford Public School System, the Connecticut Chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association, and other Hartford area high schools, will train approximately 30 Connecticut high school teachers to teach Advanced Placement (AP) computing courses in Connecticut high schools that currently do not teach AP computer science. The course will be based on a mobile Computer Science Principles curriculum, Mobile CSP, which uses the new mobile computing language, App Inventor for Android, to provide a rigorous, programming-based introduction to computational thinking. The main research question addressed is whether the Mobile CSP curriculum is an effective way to teach CS Principles and whether it can serve as one model to help train teachers for the CS 10K project. The curriculum is project-based and takes a constructionist approach to learning computing -- i.e., students learn through constructing their own artifacts and mental models. Student projects will focus on building socially useful, place-based mobile apps using the App Inventor programming language. In this way, student learning will be associated closely with their interests and grounded in their schools, their homes, and their communities. The curriculum, which was developed and tested at Trinity College and the Greater Hartford Academy of Mathematics and Science (GHAMAS) as one of the Phase 2 pilot courses for the College Board's CS Principles project, will be carefully evaluated along several dimensions, including its efficacy at improving programming and problem solving skills and its impact on student and teacher attitudes toward computer science education. The Mobile CSP project has three main goals: (i) To develop a rigorous computer science principles AP curriculum based on mobile computing; (ii) to teach it to Connecticut teachers in 6-week summer workshops; and (iii) to support participating teachers in their effort to implement the AP pilot courses in Connecticut schools that do not currently teach AP computer science. The 2013-2014 cohort of teachers will be drawn primarily from the Hartford school district, a district whose students come mostly from demographic and socio-economic backgrounds that have been underrepresented in computer science. In years two and three the project will expand to other, similarly situated, Connecticut cities and towns.