Mobile CSP Coding Camp
Coordinated by SCSU’s Office for STEM Innovation, Mobile CSP Coding Camps have offered 6 multi-day workshops on computer science principles for 115 middle school and high school students since 2018.
Mobile Computer Science Principles
Developed by the National Center for Computer Science Education, Mobile Computer Science Principles is a College Board-endorsed AP Computer Science Principles curriculum and professional development based on the theme of mobile computing.
In our second year, the curriculum was expanded to include an Arduino hardware component in a Let’s Build Workshop. Participants learned a variety of applications including App Inventor, Arduino, Raspberry pi, Lego WeDo, Lego Mindstorm, Web design, programming in Python, Unity, Java, how to code hamilton, and javascript.
CS for All
In the spring of 2019, led by ECIC Vice-Chair Dr. Winnie Yu, the Collaborative participated in advocacy for SB 957, which calls for a new teacher certification in computer science education and creates standards for computer science in high schools across the state.
Professional development for educators
In our third year, after the passage of 2019’s computer science education bill, the camp's weekend sessions were redesigned as professional development workshops for local teachers on coding and computer science related curricula.
Multi-day workshops were held for teachers on Mobile CSP (28 participants) and Python curriculum (37 participants). Each included presentations from Jennifer Michalek, Education Consultant for Connecticut’s State Department of Education, to provide guidelines to teachers about cross-endorsement and the certification process to meet the state legislature’s call for the inclusion of computer science in public schools.
In participant surveys, over ¾’s of respondents shared that they felt highly motivated and better prepared to include components of the curriculum in their classes.