I-Corps: Learning Intervention for Introductory Computer Science

I-Corps计划的更广泛影响和商业潜力是为K-12学校提供学习环境、课程和教师培训，以扩大和改善计算机科学教育，并鼓励不同的学生继续学习计算机。计算机科学已经成为21世纪的核心技能，对科技行业内外的职业生涯都至关重要，但K-12教育尚未满足行业和家长对计算机教学日益增长的需求，学区仍在努力充分培训教师，让学生参与计算机科学。这个项目提供了一个简单易用的解决方案，将音乐与计算机科学相结合，以推动学生的参与。此外，这种方法通过强调创造力和现实世界的应用，吸引女性和少数族裔学生，有助于建立多元化的计算机科学管道。如今，学校有了培训教师、购买计算机科学教学材料和工具的市场。这个I-Corps项目利用了一个在线学习环境、课程和教师培训，为从小学后期到大学水平的任何计算机入门课程设计，同时还进行了一系列研究，评估这种学习干预对学生内容知识和计算机参与的影响。这个基于网络的学习平台包括一个代码编辑器、一个多音轨音频播放器、一个音频循环库、一本交互式教科书、供学生共享和协作的机制，以及供教师使用的课程、培训和评分工具。混合方法研究表明，使用这种方法学习时，不同性别和人口统计学群体的学生在内容知识和参与度方面都有显著提高，尤其是女学生的参与度。学生们将他们对计算机的投入归功于创造性、表现力和现实世界的干预方法，通过将流行音乐和音乐制作技术与计算思维和行业相关编码语言的编程相结合。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide K-12 schools with a learning environment, curriculum, and teacher training to expand and improve computer science education and to encourage a diverse student population to pursue further studies in computing. Computer science has become a core 21st century skill critical to careers both within and beyond the tech industry, but K-12 education has yet to meet increasing demand from industry and from parents to teach computing, and school districts still struggle to adequately train teachers and to engage students in computer science. This project provides a simple and easy-to-use solution that integrates music with computer science to drive student engagement. Moreover, this approach contributes to a diverse computer science pipeline by engaging female and minority students through an emphasis on creativity and real-world applications. Today there is a market for schools to train teachers, and to buy materials and tools to teach computer science.This I-Corps project leverages an online learning environment, curriculum, and teacher training designed for any introductory computing course from late elementary through to the college level, along with a body of research assessing the effects of this learning intervention on student content knowledge and engagement in computing. The web-based learning platform includes a code editor, a multi-track audio player, an audio loop library, an interactive textbook, and mechanisms for students to share and collaborate, along with curricular, training, and grading tools for teachers. Mixed-methods research has shown significant student gains in both content knowledge and engagement across gender and demographic groups when learning with this approach, with particularly large gains in engagement for female students. Students ascribe their increased engagement in computing to the creative, expressive, and real-world approach of the intervention through its combination of popular music and music production techniques with computational thinking and programming in industry-relevant coding languages.