Coding for All Barbara Ericson Georgia Institute of Technology October 18, 2013
Coding for AllBarbara EricsonGeorgia Institute of Technology
October 18, 2013
Overview• Why should everyone learn to code?
• Lots of jobs in computing• Computing is an essential skill• If everyone learns to code we could increase diversity
• What is being done to reach that goal?• Curriculum efforts• Research efforts• Policy efforts
• Tools to use to teach everyone to code?
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Computing and mathematics is one of the
TOP 10 fastest growing major occupational groups 2010-2020.
150,000+ job openings in computing annually.
1 in every 2 STEM jobs will be in computing in 2020.
Sources: Jobs data are calculated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employment Projections 2010-2020, available at http://www.bls.gov/emp/. Educational levels are calculated from BLS Occupational Projections Data, Employment 2010-2020, available at http://data.bls.gov/oep/ and the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010-2020, available at http://bls.gov/ooh/.
Computing Jobs Through 2020
Annual STEM Degrees (2009) and Annual STEM Job Openings (2010-2020)
Sources: Degree data are calculated from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Science and Engineering Indicators 2012, available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind12/appendix.htm. Annual jobs data are calculated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employment Projections 2010-2020, available at http://www.bls.gov/emp/. STEM is defined here to include non-medical degrees and occupations.
Source: Jobs data are calculated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employment Projections 2010-2020, available at http://www.bls.gov/emp/. STEM is defined here to include non-medical occupations.
Top 10 STEM Occupations
1.4M jobs400K grads
OCTOBER 5, 2012
Code.orgOver 10 million views
Computing is an essential skill
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Computing is an essential skill
Computing is essential for STEM
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Increasing Diversity
• 74% of college-bound males are interested• Even higher for black and Hispanic males
• Only 26% of females are interested
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Curriculum Efforts• Exploring Computer Science
• Started in LA• Grown to include Chicago, Oregon, Utah, Washington D.C.,
and Santa Clara
• Curriculum plus professional development• Intended for all students – not just the college bound
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Exploring Computer Science
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CS Principles• New Advanced Placement exam in Computing
• AP course by fall 2016
• More general than Advanced Placement CS A• Intended for college-bound students
• 48 pilot sites this year
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AP CS A
• Comparable to a first college course for majors• Focuses on programming in Java.
• Variables, Loops, Conditionals• Arrays and Lists• Object-oriented concepts
• Also includes searching and sorting • Graded on a 1 to 5 scale with 3 and above
considered passing.• Students who take AP CS A are more likely to
take computing in college than those who do not.14
Advanced Placement CS A in NY
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AP CS A in New York
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New York AP CS A in 2013 • 3rd by total number of exams taken
• Behind California at 4,964• and Texas at 3,979• New York at 1,858.
• 13th by population• Behind Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey,
Massachusetts, Texas, the District of Columbia, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Illinois, and Washington
• 124 schools offered AP CS A in 2013• vs 698 for AP Calculus AB
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STEM AP Participation
— Chris Stephenson, CSTA, 2010
Research Efforts
• Computing Education in the 21st Century NSF grants• EarSketch - http://earsketch.gatech.edu• On line book for Python • http://interactivepython.org/
• Broadening Participation in computing grants• Expanding Computing Education Pathways• STARS – group of colleges and universities• NCWIT – focus on women in IT
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Policy Efforts• Code.org is trying to help states allow at least AP
CS A to count as a math and/or science for high school graduation• 14 states and the District of Columbia do currently• New York does as a math or science
• CS Education Week December 9-15th, 2013• Encouraging all to do an hour of code
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Tools for Teaching ComputingThere are many free tools for teaching computing
• CS Unplugged• LightBot 2.0• Scratch – ages 8 and up• App Inventor – middle school and up• Alice – middle school and up• Media Computation – Python or Java• Greenfoot – Java
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CS Unplugged – 3rd grade+
Free materials for teaching computing concepts without a computer– http://csunplugged.org/
Binary NumbersNetwork Deadlocks
Light Bot 2.0 – Middle School+
• On-line flash game• Program a robot to light up
blue tileshttp://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/628
Scratch – 8 years old+• Cloud software from MIT for creating 2D
animations and games - http://scratch.mit.edu• Teacher website - http://scratched.media.mit.edu/• GT distance learning site
http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/• Christopher Michaud’s site
http://nebomusic.net/scratch.html
App Inventor – MS+
• Drag and drop programming for Android devices
• Can use a phone emulator
http://appinventor.mit.edu
http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/639
Alice 3.1 – High School+
Free software from CMU for creating 3D movies and games– http://www.alice.org
• Includes the Electronic Arts Sims human models
• Can import into Netbeans IDE as Java code
• Has inheritance and polymorphism
Alice 2.3 – High School+
Free software from CMU for creating 3D movies and games– http://www.alice.org
Teacher website– http://aliceprogramming.net/
Georgia Tech’s site– http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/
Christopher’s site– http://nebomusic.net/computerhelp.html
Storytelling Alice – MS+
Designed for middle school girls– More built-in methods
Windows onlyhttp://www.alice.org/
kelleher/storytelling/http://ice-
web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/27
Media Computation
Free software from Georgia Tech for teaching computing – By having students write programs in
Python or Java to manipulate media• Pictures, sounds, movies, and text
http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/mediaComp-teach
Greenfoot – High School+
Free software from the Un. of Kent and Deakin Un. for building 2D simulations and games in Javahttp://www.greenfoot.org
Can do Karel the Robot and GridWorld in Greenfoot
Teacher site:– http://greenroom.greenfoot.org/
door
Can use the Kinect too
How to Grow Computing Teachers• Professional development
• Google CS4HS• CE21 grants• MOOCs• On-line learning
• Offer competitions• Scratch• Alice• AP CS A
• Support CSTA chapters