South Carolina has new K-8 standards that aim to engage all students in computer science and computational thinking and
create a pipeline to high school courses. Standards for grades 9-12 are under development. These inaugural standards present
a significant need for qualified teachers and the knowledge to prepare them.
This RPP project will broaden participation in computing in South Carolina by preparing computer science (CS) teachers to
effectively use culturally responsive, inclusive pedagogies and will develop an active community of high school CS teachers
and researchers to meet the demand triggered by this move to include CS across the K-8 curriculum and to require rigorous
CS courses at the high school level.
The proposed project has a local objective, motivated by the immediate challenges and opportunities in the state of South Carolina to make computing accessible to a diverse audience—and a larger objective, motivated by a need to understand what preparation is necessary and what impediments must be overcome to effectively deliver culturally responsive computing education to students. Exceptional potential exists in the state to diversify access to computing because of our demographics—over 30% of the residents identify as Black or African American (27.9%), or Hispanic or LatinX (5.3%) and because a significant population is economically disadvantaged and rural.
The project leverages an existing Researcher-Practitioner Partnership (RPP), including computer science and education researchers, along with administrators and teacher practitioners from the Anderson Five Career Campus (which will offer computing courses to high school students in Anderson School Districts), Pickens County School District, and South Carolina's Coalition for Mathematics and Science (an organization providing professional develoment to additional districts). Many of the participating schools have significant underrepresented and/or economically disadvantaged student populations.
The project has been funded to prepare approximately 60 inservice teachers (40 ECS teachers and 20 AP CSP teachers) in two cohorts of 30 each, beginning in the summers of 2018 and 2019. The teachers will be trained by the ECS team and the UTeach Institute. Computer Science “pathways” in South Carolina may include one or both of ECS and AP CSP courses.
The term “Exploring Computer Science” (ECS) refers to a curriculum as well as to a program of teacher professional development. Initially developed for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), ECS aims to broaden the participation in learning computer science. The ECS curriculum consists of six modules: (1) Human-Computer Interaction (2) Problem Solving (3) Web Design (4) Introduction to Programming (5) Robotics, and (6) Computing Applications. Assignments and lessons use computing education materials such as Scratch, Lego Mindstorms robotics challenges, and Computer Science Unplugged.
The ECS curriculum seeks to draw from the rich experiences that a diverse student body brings into the classroom, and engages students in activities such as building Web sites about community issues that concern them or using Scratch to develop stories about their community, highlighting positive attributes, recommending something that should change, and incorporating statistics to support the narratives.
The professional development model for ECS consists of a one-week, pre-implementation summer institute to introduce the instructional philosophy of the curriculum and content from the early units, four academic year one-day workshops to focus on the remaining units and emphasize the “three pillars” of the ECS philosophy: computer science content/concepts, inquiry, and equity, and a post-implementation summer institute to deepen teacher engagement with content and pedagogy. Some ECS teachers may become ECS facilitators via further development.
UTeach Institute AP CS Principles (CSP) curriculum and teacher professional development uses a project-based approach designed to engage young women and students from historically underrepresented groups. AP CSP is structured around seven “big ideas” (creativity, abstraction, data and information, algorithms, programming, the Internet, and global impact) and six “computational thinking practices” (connecting computing, creating computational artifacts, abstracting, analyzing problems and artifacts, communicating, and collaborating). The UTeach AP CSP professional development model consists of a one-week pre-implementation summer institute and academic year support. Some of the academic year support will be provided by the Clemson RPP team. Teachers who participate in the PD in a given year may pursue further professional development in a subsequent year to become a facilitator.
Ph.D. Student
School of Computing
Clemson University
Ph.D. Student
School of Computing
Clemson University
Ph.D. Student
School of Computing
Clemson University
Ph.D. Student
College of Education
Clemson University
Ph.D. Student
School of Computing
Clemson University
Student
School of Engineering
Claflin University
Student
School of Engineering
Claflin University
Student
School of Computing
Clemson University
During the summer of 2018 Clemson hosted two teacher professional development workshops with funding from a 3-year, one million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation. The workshops focused on preparing and supporting teachers to teach culturally responsive and rigorous CS Courses in SC high schools. One workshop focused on the Exploring Computer Science curriculum and the other focused on AP Computer Science Principles. Both courses are suitable for introductory courses at the high school level. In addition, one teacher from each workshop was supported by a gift from Boeing.
The project is led by Professors Megan Che (College of Education) and Eileen Kraemer and Murali Sitaraman (School of Computing), in collaboration with Anna Baldwin (Anderson 5 School District) , Brian Richard (Pickens County School District), and Tom Peters (SC Coalition for Mathematics and Science). Graduate student members of the team include Rhoda Latimer, Aubrey Lawson, and Olivia Nche-Eyabi and Clemson undergraduate Juan Ramos.
During the week of June 18th – 22nd, the Clemson team hosted Dale Reed and Floresa Vaughn who are Exploring Computer Science instructors from University of Illinois, Chicago and McClymonds High School, Oakland, CA. respectively
Teachers from school districts across South Carolina participated and will be teaching the Exploring Computer Science course in their home districts during the coming academic year.
Also in attendance were student and faculty collaborators from Claflin University (Raquel Boulware, Donald Davis and Prof. Cheryl Swanier) and Educational Specialists from S2TEM Center SC (Kerry Branch and Margaret Lorimer).
The workshops will continue with four Saturday workshops during the school year and a second week of professional development during the summer of 2019.
During the week of July 23rd – 27th the Clemson team hosted UTeach AP Computer Science Principles instructor Brian Ford.
Teachers from school districts across South Carolina participated and will be teaching the AP Computer Science Principles course in their home districts during the coming academic year.
The workshops will continue with four Saturday workshops during the school year and a second week of professional development during the summer of 2019.
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During the summer of 2019 Clemson hosted two teacher professional development workshops with funding from a 3-year, one million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation. The workshops focused on preparing and supporting teachers to teach culturally responsive and rigorous CS Courses in SC high schools. One workshop focused on the Exploring Computer Science curriculum and the other focused on AP Computer Science Principles. Both courses are suitable for introductory courses at the high school level. In addition, one teacher from each workshop was supported by a gift from Boeing.
The project is led by Professors Megan Che (College of Education) and Eileen Kraemer and Murali Sitaraman (School of Computing), in collaboration with Anna Baldwin (Anderson 5 School District) , Brian Richard (Pickens County School District), and Tom Peters (SC Coalition for Mathematics and Science). Graduate student members of the team include Rhoda Latimer, Aubrey Lawson, and Olivia Nche-Eyabi and Clemson undergraduate Juan Ramos.
During the week of June 18th – 22nd, the Clemson team hosted Dale Reed and Floresa Vaughn who are Exploring Computer Science instructors from University of Illinois, Chicago and McClymonds High School, Oakland, CA. respectively
Teachers from school districts across South Carolina participated and will be teaching the Exploring Computer Science course in their home districts during the coming academic year.
Also in attendance were student and faculty collaborators from Claflin University (Raquel Boulware, Donald Davis and Prof. Cheryl Swanier) and Educational Specialists from S2TEM Center SC (Kerry Branch and Margaret Lorimer).
The workshops will continue with four Saturday workshops during the school year and a second week of professional development during the summer of 2019.
During the week of July 23rd – 27th the Clemson team hosted UTeach AP Computer Science Principles instructor Brian Ford.
Teachers from school districts across South Carolina participated and will be teaching the AP Computer Science Principles course in their home districts during the coming academic year.
The workshops will continue with four Saturday workshops during the school year and a second week of professional development during the summer of 2019.
We will offer a CRōCS professional development opportunity for summer 2020. This workshop will be facilitated by the CRōCS project team. We are working to develop activities and modules to deepen understanding of computer science content as well as pedagogy. The workshop will be held at Clemson University for 4 days, beginning Tuesday, June 9th and running through the end of the day on Friday, June 12th. Participants will receive an $1000 stipend. Travel, lodging and meals will be covered by the grant. The workshop will:
Interested returning teachers should contact us at crocs@clemson.edu as soon as possible.
Instructions for new applicants:
Please complete this application. Once you have completed the application, please have an administrator complete this administrator recommendation.
