Description:
The University of Oregon and the University of California at Los Angeles have developed, through the leadership of Dr. Joanna Goode and Dr. Jane Margolis, a computer science curriculum, focusing on increasing and enhancing the computer science learning opportunities in public schools, an broadening the participation of underrepresented groups, including African-American, Latino/a, and female students in learning computer science.
Exploring Computer Science (ECS) is a computer science education program consisting of a year-long high school course curriculum and an intensive 2-year Professional Development program for teachers. Both the curriculum and professional development program were designed based on best practices in STEM learning and teaching research.
The curriculum was developed to focus on foundational computer science concepts and computational practices. There are six units in the curriculum with daily lesson plans and assignments: Human Computer Interaction, Problem Solving, Web Design, Introduction to Programming, Computing and Data Analysis, and Robotics. The accompanying two-year Professional Development program (two summer weeklong Institutes plus quarterly Saturday workshops) is required for those who will teach the course.
The Professional Development program focuses on building teachers’ capacity to engage in inquiry-based and equity-based instruction to facilitate student learning. Only teachers scheduled to teach ECS courses the following year at the high school level are allowed to attend an ECS PD. Further, only ECS endorsed facilitators that have participated in the ECS Facilitator Preparation process are able to lead ECS Professional Development workshops.
For more information:
http://www.exploringcs.org/