The proposed University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) ITEST Youth Based Project draws on the strengths of several units at UAB to facilitate high-end information technology (IT) training for about 200 high school students over three years. Nearly all of the participants will be from disadvantaged school districts that have over 95% minority students, with about 25% of students living below the national poverty threshold. The proposed program links together the Center for Community OutReach Development (CORD) and the UAB Schools of Engineering, Education and Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Partnerships include Dell, Inc., Southern Research Institute, the McWane Science Center and the Black Data Processing Associates. The proposed program will engage students in math and IT through user-friendly hands-on imaging programs that resemble video games. Through the sequential introduction of math and computer science foundations for such programming, high school students will be prepared to be IT leaders from high through college and careers. Students will be recruited on the basis of their stated interest, teacher recommendations and their performance in the middle school CORD programs, which reach over 3,000 students in the school districts targeted by this proposal.
The project proposes to develop and rigorously test new, discovery-based methods to enhance the integration of mathematics, science, and information technology. It will provide multi-year experiences for participating students which begins during the summer before their sophomore year and extends through their senior year in high school. Activities include: (1) a week-long Alice Film Festival discovery experience (2) an after-school, inquiry-based experience, Mathematizing Alice's World, to increase their understanding of the math behind visual imaging. (3) a weeklong experience using Robot C, to learn C programming using NXT Lego robots and (4) the design and completion of a project at the IDC facility by student teams weekly after school, under the mentorship of UAB facilitators, area teachers and parents. Parental involvement will be insured through the proposed Weekend Academy, Parent Leadership Team and other interactions. Monitoring of the students' progress in high school through college will assess the effectiveness of such programs to engage students and to propel them into IT-related careers. Like many other CORD programs, the proposed initiative will become self-sustaining.
The project's impact will include 1) increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in IT-related education and careers, 2) providing role models and advocates for IT-related education, 3) creating a long-term sustainable IT-training program in Alabama and 4) making the programs in math and computer science broadly available to other schools and teachers in the US.
