Collaborative Research: Supporting High School Computing Teachers with the Accessible Learning Labs

Rochester Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and the University of Rochester aim to enhance high school computing education by providing them easy to adopt, experiential educational labs. This project will adapt and evaluate the Accessible Learning Labs (ALL)—a suite of experiential educational computing modules—for effective use in grades 9–12. The investigators, in collaboration with high school educators and Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) programs across Upstate New York, will modify and implement several existing experiential educational labs to align with secondary education contexts. By including engaging, real-world computing topics such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and software development into classrooms, the project empowers students with the skills and confidence needed for STEM careers. The work supports the national interest by promoting the progress of science and broadening participation in computing through experiential learning tools. Collaborations with high schools and NY STEP programs will ensure that the project benefits a future STEM workforce. In addition to directly supporting student learning, the project contributes to research on how experiential teaching methods can improve engagement in STEM fields. This small CSforAll High School Strand project will apply experiential learning principles to teach foundational computing concepts in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, accessible software design, and machine learning. Through iterative co-design, classroom implementation, and rigorous formative and summative evaluation, the team will assess the educational impact of these labs on both students and instructors. The effort will contribute to pedagogical knowledge on experiential computing education at the high school level, address existing gaps in accessible STEM resources, and generate scalable, open-access materials to support nationwide adoption. 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.