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Outreach to Middle and High Schools

With roughly 1,300 unfilled jobs in computer science in Idaho alone1, one of our primary goals is to encourage more students to pursue computer science. To be successful this effort must start well before students reach college. The purpose of our outreach efforts is to raise awareness of and opportunities to learn computer science at the middle and high school levels.

Thanks to generous support from the STEM Action Center, the Computer Science program at Idaho State University has been able to sponsor a series of workshops at middle and high schools in the broad Pocatello, Idaho area, introducing students to STEM and computer programming through the use of programmable Mindstorm LEGO robots. Through the use of self-guided tutorials and student mentoring, this program exposes students to the the Python programming language in a fun, interactive way.

We also host a week long summer camp for middle school and high school instructors and students teaching an introduction to Python programming.

We are eager to help HS instructors start teaching courses in CS. We have all the material you'll need. We're working on developing a Computer Science Endorsement program, but in the meantime, please be aware that there are a number of other endorsements that allow HS instructors to teach computer science for math and/or science credit (check here for the latest Credential Manual).

References

1Idaho K-12 Content Computer Science Standards White Paper