This project establishes a partnership between Santa Clara University (SCU) and several surrounding high schools with a high percentage of under-represented and economically disadvantaged students in the Santa Clara Valley of California. The goals of the project are to improve the communication, instruction, and teamwork skills of SCU graduate engineering students (fellows), to strengthen teachers' knowledge of computer science, to raise awareness of the societal and global context of computing among students, and to increase their interest and skill in computational thinking.
High school teachers and graduate student fellows will receive training for the Exploring Computer Science course, and fellows will be given instruction on pedagogy and the challenges of a high school classroom environment. The fellows will then work with the teachers in the high school classrooms, serving as role models to students and facilitating their engagement with the subject matter.
This three-year partnership between SCU and surrounding high schools broadens the education of graduate engineering students, strengthens high school teachers? expertise in computing, introduces high school students to the breadth of computing and its impact on their lives, and ultimately increases the supply and diversity of graduates ready to enter the IT workforce.
