CSforME: Integrating Computer Science and Computational Thinking in Maine's Rural High Schools

Educate Maine, in collaboration with the Institute for Advancing Computing Education, will explore and plan resources to prepare and support core curriculum teachers integrating computer science and computational thinking (CS/CT) into their courses. Integration of CS/CT into required core disciplines (such as social studies, English language arts (ELA), math and science) holds great promise for fostering more participation and interest in CS and for increasing the general CS/CT skills and interest in the workforce. Integration is an especially important strategy in rural schools which often cannot afford a CS-specific teacher. This project partnership between interdisciplinary practitioners and researchers seek to support Maine teachers in developing CS skills that can prepare students for entering the modern workforce. This small High School Strand Research Practice Partnership (RPP) will implement exploratory research, RPP building, and pilot testing that results in stakeholder engagement, educator motivation, and research data that will underpin the future creation of resources to prepare and support teachers implementing CS/CT integration into core discipline topics in Maine’s rural high schools. The project will reach 140 teachers in rural Maine high schools while pilot testing a professional development series and engage teachers and community members from across the state in Listening Sessions and focus groups, as well as convening an 8-person RPP. This project will address three research questions: (1) What obstacles do high school teachers in rural Maine communities face in integrating CS/CT into their subjects? (2) What support structures and resources do rural Maine high school teachers need to effectively integrate CS/CT using the developed curriculum into other subjects? (3) How does preparing rural high school teachers to teach CS/CT through the developed curriculum in core subjects impact teachers' CS motivation (including self-efficacy in teaching CS and expectancy-value for learning CS), and interest in teaching CS? This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.