Association for Women in Computing (AWC)
Contact: Debra Tatar, dtatar@vt.edu
Type of program:
The Association for Women in Computing conducts curriculum development and dissemination activities (e.g., middle school unit on design, high school robotics unit, teacher training material, lesson plan series), K-12 student and youth programs, as well as social networking. Every year, the undergraduate and graduate students in AWC raise money for, organize, and conduct Women in Computing Day, in which about 100 seventh-grade girls and their teachers are invited to Virginia Tech for a fun day with computing. Several of these activities have been rolled out to local schools, and a number of the women are interested in further outreach opportunities. AWC's focus is middle school computing, but many of the activities could go to upper elementary or high school classrooms as well. The program takes place in a classroom with an informal group such as after school, clubs, camps 4-H, etc.) as well as Virginia Tech. Besides the 100 participants, about 15 university undergraduates, 40 graduates, five faculty, and two administrators participate.
My Virtual Instances of Computing Environments (MyVICE) for K-12 Pedagogy
Contact:
Wu Feng, feng@cs.vt.edu
Type of program:
Dr. Feng has created classroom resources (e.g., microscopes, petri dishes, hands-on kits); curriculum development and dissemination (e.g., middle school unit on design, high school robotics unit, teacher training material, lesson plan series); K-12 student and youth programs; K-12 teacher professional development. Ready-to-Go resources include second-generation computing curriculum for third to seventh grade; self-contained "LiveCD" distributions for K-12; self-contained "designer images" for K-12 pedagogy in computing, delivered via VT server resources. The target audience is third to seventh graders. The activity length is one lesson for 30 - 45 minutes. There are currently eight lessons with additional exercises at the end of each lesson. The learning objective is learning how to program a computer via pictures (rather than text). The notice needed to prepare the activity depends in part on the target audience, on the length of activity chosen, and on the availability of computers to configure. This could be done on the same day, particularly in the summer. The program takes place in a classroom setting, serving after school, clubs, camps, 4-H, etc., as well as informal settings such as museums, communities, home, etc.
The program serves 500 K-12 youths; 250 K-5 youths (elementary); 200 sixth to eighth grade youths (middle school); 50 ninth to twelfth grade youths (high school) with one K-12 faculty, four university undergraduates, one faculty, and one administrator. The disciplines and topics include science, technology, engineering, mathematics, instructional technology, integrated STEM education, and cross-curricular. The areas served includes mid-Atlantic, Virginia, southside Virginia and/or southwest Virginia, and the; local area.
In the Department of Computer Science, faculty members Francis Quek, Yong Cao, Roger Ehrich, and Deborah Tatar interact with K-12 students as part of their research groups. Once or twice a year, schools such as the Governor's School request a lecture and/or demonstration. However, the biggest outreach activity is Women in Computing Day, at which when seventh-grade girls visit campus and are introduced to fun things that computers do, including virtual environments, webpages, and programming.
Dr. Tatar uses ThoughtSwap, software that allows students to type in an idea about an article or discussion, submit it anonymously, and then have it appear on someone else's screen to be re-presented as appropriate in the course of discussion. So, the person who submitted the entry may contribute a tentative or potentially embarrassing idea, listen to someone else present it, and hear the reaction. S/he can also speak up if the presentation of the idea is not what s/he imagines. The person presenting the idea has to interpret someone else's words and intentions. The goal is deeper collaborative engagement with ideas.
Furthermore, Dr. Tatar's group uses collaborative game systems, such as collaborative crossword puzzle and Sudoku,with a middle school game club. Also with the middle school game club, they have also used PlaceMark, a collaborative writing system that focuses on getting people to think about their own experiences of places and spaces.
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