BPC-AE: Collaborative Research: Extending "Georgia Computes!": A Statewide Vertical Alliance to Broaden Participation through Innovative, Inviting, and Relevant Computing Education

Columbus State University, Columbus GA

Investigators

Abstract

The Georgia Institute of Technology in collaboration with Columbus State University proposes an extension to the "Georgia Computes!" Alliance. Georgia Computes! has made dramatic strides in improving computing education throughout the state, at all levels of the pipeline. Its efforts start at 4th grade with summer camps, and continue through middle school with camps and outreach with the Girl Scouts, YWCA, and Cool Girls, extend to high school with camps and teacher professional development, and end in undergraduate education with faculty workshops. Georgia Computes! successes include exponential growth in the number of Girl Scouts taking their computing workshops, the creation of eight new regional summer computing camps, a doubling of the number of institutions offering Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS), a doubling of the number of Hispanic students taking the APCS exam, and change at a quarter of the computing programs in the University System of Georgia. With this Extension, they propose to scale, and broaden their alliance interventions. Georgia Computes! will grow its teacher education efforts to include two regional centers of expertise, at Columbus State and at Armstrong Atlantic State University. In order to offer inservice workshops throughout the state, it will develop on-line materials, including courses that provide on-line access to Georgia's new computer science teaching endorsement. Georgia Computes! will grow its already successful K-12 outreach efforts to help students to develop a broader definition of computing. It will use more diverse student mentors, including high school students and disabled undergraduate students. Most importantly, this Extension will create infrastructure for careful measurement of individual university computing programs in the state and to track individuals from workshops and camps, through high school classes, to university degrees.