New San Diego STEM Program Receives Support from Power Ten, Inc.

April 18, 2012 - PRLog -- For young people looking toward their future and the possible career choices that may lay ahead, the path is often confusing and navigation to their chosen field is cluttered and unclear. For students interested in Computer Science and the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, one local project is working to make the path easier to navigate by developing a standardized curriculum for college bound young people.

Using Advanced Placement (AP) coursework as the tool to achieve this standardization, a team of educators from San Diego is launching a pilot program to bring the efforts of high school teachers together to meet a growing need. Being led by Dr. Elizabeth Simon, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UCSD, a team comprised of members from the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD, University of California San Diego, and San Diego State University is developing the new curriculum. The program, locally called ComPASS http://www.ce21sandiego.org (Computing Principles for All Students’ Success) is part of Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21), a national project that seeks to broaden participation in computing and computer science.

According to Dr. Simon, “there is an on-going national effort to define general education computer science curriculum and what it should be.”

Receiving grant funding from the National Science Foundation as well as additional funding from Power Ten, Inc. http://www.powerteninc.com , a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, which believes in investing in the communities it serves, the project in San Diego is bringing computer science teachers together to help train the future workforce with a specific skill set that will prepare students for careers in the technology sector as well as the overall workforce.

“Students don’t know what Computer science is,” says Dr. Simon. “Is it Excel, is it video game programming? We want to define what it is and prepare the students accordingly. Every student should see the need of this coursework for the future. All college bound students should take this.”

As stated by the National Science Foundation, “the Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21) program aims to build a robust computing research community, a computationally competent 21st century workforce, and a computationally empowered citizenry. In this undertaking, there are three interrelated challenges: the significant underproduction of degrees needed for the computing and computing-related workforce, the longstanding under-representation of many segments of our population, and the lack of a presence of computing in K-12.”

Fulfilling the need in San Diego, the ComPASS program, fosters broad-based, inclusive, and motivational instruction in computing foundations and computational thinking for all students, regardless of their eventual career path. The ComPASS project will directly impact 105 pre-service teachers, 19 in-service teachers, and about 5000 students. If successful, its model could be adopted at other universities, colleges, and school districts.

The ComPASS pilot program has specifically targeted and began working with four schools to meet the demographics set forth by the NSF grant. These schools are Lincoln High School, Valhalla High School, Grossmont High School, and Oceanside High School; however it is open to other schools and teachers.

The NSF grant states, “Innovation in information technology (IT) has driven economic growth, underlies many of our recent scientific advances, and ensures our national security; it is not surprising then that predicted IT job growth is very strong. Yet students are not majoring in computing in sufficient numbers. This shortfall is exacerbated by the longstanding under-representation of women, persons with disabilities, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and indigenous peoples in computing. We cannot meet workforce demands without their participation and we cannot, in an increasingly competitive world economy, afford to cede the talents and creativity of so many. To ensure their participation, and the full participation of all students, we must provide better opportunities to study computing in K-12. We must start with a better understanding of how students learn computing. Unlike many of the other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines, computing has not developed a robust research base on the teaching and learning of its fundamental concepts and skills. That research base must be built and it must be used in providing all students with rigorous academic curricula that cover computational concepts and skills, and the breadth of application and potential of computing. Providing access to rigorous, academic computing in K-12 will require an unprecedented effort to develop curriculum and materials and to prepare teachers.”

Dr. Simon has been involved in introducing women to the STEM fields for more than 15 years and sees a distinct need to continue to reach the underrepresented groups in the field. According to research less than 20% of females graduate with degrees in the STEM fields.

In aggregate, CE21 projects will contribute to our understanding of how diverse student populations are engaged and retained in computing, learn its fundamental concepts, and develop computational competencies that position them to contribute to an increasingly computationally empowered workforce.

Power Ten, Inc. is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) that provides professional, technical, engineering, and information technologies services to government and industry customers. Power Ten, Inc. was founded and is managed by former Marines with extensive operational and management experience who share common proven leadership and business principles – QUALITY PEOPLE, WHO DELIVER QUALITY PRODUCTS, AT A FAIR AND REASONABLE PRICE. Our people, our partners, and our customers share a bond of trust, confidence and a commitment to actionable products.

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Power Ten, Inc. is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) that provides professional, technical, engineering, and information technologies services to government and industry customers.