BUILDING EQUITY IN THE NEXT GENERATION
OF COMPUTER SCIENTISTS
SCS teams increase access to computer science and technical education for younger, more diverse audiences
Kevin O’Connell
With great authority comes great responsibility. This adage has been attributed to various people in positions of power, from President Teddy Roosevelt to Spiderman. Though repackaged with each reprise, it remains a truism: those in powerful positions must not use that power to maintain their own advantage, but to lead in a manner that benefits all.
Now that computer literacy and tech fluency have become key access points to better careers, and now that technology powers nearly everything from healthcare to the service industry, farming and beyond, SCS continues its mission to expand access to those who reside on the more challenging side of the technology gap, especially those from traditionally under-resourced communities.
Darla Coleman, executive director of SCS’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives believes the benefits of diversity work both ways. “It's important to have representation within SCS because it brings us diverse thought and perspectives,” said Coleman. “With each different person belonging to a specific group, we gain access to different modes of thoughts, while fostering an inclusive community.” Alongside on-campus programs like Women@SCS, SCS4All and SCS4Accessibilty that seek to welcome diverse groups to campus and help them find a home here, several SCS programs are making computer science education accessible to as many young people as possible, especially in under-resourced communities and in places where they would not otherwise exist. The programs aim to reach students at young ages, long before they might ever attend CMU, regardless of if they attend at all.
“With each different person belonging to a specific group, we gain access to different modes of thoughts, while fostering an inclusive community.”
CS Pathways + Beta Builders
“Less than 50% of American high schools offer computer science classes,” said Ashley Patton, director of CS Pathways, an initiative that offers a variety of outreach programs designed to provide people from under-resourced areas access to computer science education. “And the computer science curriculum being offered happens overwhelmingly in wealthy districts, particularly suburban and primarily white districts. CS Pathways exists to address this problem.”
Under an ever-broadening umbrella of programs, CS Pathways has recently partnered with Beta Builders, a local organization that goes into Pittsburgh communities to teach kids how to code.
“If you don't have any technology skills, you absolutely won't be prepared for the 21st century,” said Maximilian Dennison, director of Beta Builders. Dennison and his partner Anthony Harper started the program to break down the barriers they saw preventing people in their community from accessing job opportunities in technical fields.
“It's not that coding is too hard, or computer science is too difficult,” said Dennison. “It's about exposure and practice. And having the wraparound services to be able to mentor and help students succeed.”
Ashley Patton, director of the
CS Pathway Programs
The program’s goal closely aligns with CS Pathways goals; hence the partnership arose. Beta Builders is free for the campers, but there have been other hurdles to increasing attendance. In addition to the cost of the camps and the perceived difficulty of computer science, Dennison points to the idea that young kids in his community still see professional sports as a viable path to a good income – not technology jobs. “Until I'm walking down the street and kids are talking about robotics instead of Steph Curry or Lebron James, there's work to be done,” said Dennison.
Normalizing the tech industry in his community is personal for Dennison, too. “The program attacks all the issues that students that come from my community and look like me are facing,” he said. “If you get a job in tech, you're going to have sustainability. You're learning a skill set that's for the future, so you‘ll always be able to feed your family and take care of your responsibilities and not be in that struggle.”
“It’s not that coding is too hard, or computer science is too difficult. It’s about exposure and practice. And having the wraparound services to be able to mentor and help students succeed.”
Beta Builders session in progress. Photo courtesy of Beta Builders
Dennison believes that if Medgar Evers or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, they would be saying the thing that we need to be getting into now is tech, because it is the biggest thing that affects the most people. “I just feel like with the time I have on Earth, I love the fact that we are pushing kids toward a better future,” he said.
The program is just three years old, but graduates of Beta Builders now attend computer science programs at Penn State and UC Berkeley. “They come back in the summer and help us teach some of the courses,” said Dennison.
Patton said that CS Pathways is always asking how they can create experiences that transform the entire trajectory of a person’s life, and the partnership with Beta Builders is one of their many initiatives.
A career in tech can do much more than impact the life of the person gaining the access and the knowledge to the career. “The kids are the biggest part of why we do this, but it's also about how they go on to enriching their communities,” said Patton. “It can have a generational impact.”
CMU CS Academy
An SCS outreach program with big potential for impact is CMU CS Academy, which offers completely free online computer science curricula for middle school and high school classrooms.
CMU CS ACADEMY CURRICULA
CS1 Computer Science 1, the original pilot course for high school students
AP CSP - CS Principles, modules created in collaboration with code.org that complement the Advanced Placement course and test
CS2, an applications-based course
CS3, the capstone course currently being piloted; carries with it the benefit of college credit for students who complete it, backed by SCS
CS0, designed for pre-high school students and gives schools and out-of-school instructors the freedom to offer the program in different ways, as an elective, club or after-school program
The online, graphics-based courses feature 24/7 online support and auto-graded exercises to read exercises for students, as well as professional development and a teacher portal filled with resources. This level of support allows teachers to improve their own abilities while focusing their attention on their students.
“You have to act like a leader if you want to be a leader,” said David Kosbie, associate teaching professor and co-founder and director of CS Academy. “It’s not just a title. It’s something you earn.” Along with co-founder Mark Stehlik, associate dean for outreach, the pair want to teach one million students.
“A lot of people think that goal is somewhere between delusional and extraordinary hubris, or maybe just a joke,” said Kosbie. “But it is none of those things to us. We mean it.”
The growth of CS Academy since its pilot year in 2017 can only be described as exponential. The launch group in 2018 had about 400 students. Since then, more than 176,000 students have used the curriculum utilizing 120 million program runs. The growth is remarkable, especially considering that it has yet to be adopted wholesale by a major U.S. school district. “We are more than 1/6th of the way there,” said Kosbie. “We’re going to get to a million students. We are going to satisfy the initial target and we fully intend more.”
As CS Academy forges ahead, the team realizes that exponential growth will not always be the norm. And they’ve begun to recognize and move into the next frontier: offering their courses in Spanish. “We anticipate in the next year or two, our Spanish- speaking students will grow in number to be equal to our English-speaking students,” said Kosbie. “We expect continued, aggressive growth.”
“You have to act like a leader if you want to be a leader. It’s not just a title. It’s something you earn.””
CS Academy students designed these award-winning game using the program.
Sophia DeJesus, assistant program manager who heads the Spanish program, recently trained teachers in Puerto Rico and has been in talks with government officials in Costa Rica. Adopting the program doesn’t work the same way in these countries as it does in the U.S. because often there’s a minister of education or someone appointed by the government to approve the curriculum. So, the strategy, as Kosbie notes, must be different.
“In the U.S., it’s hard to get broad adoption across a state, but it’s easier to get into a particular school. So, you start building up that way. In Central and South America, it’s harder to get in, but once you do, you might open the entire country.”
Offering a Spanish version helps growth in U.S. cities like Houston, Miami and Los Angeles with high numbers of Spanish-speaking students, especially ESL students. These students could be in an English-speaking classroom and yet do their work in Spanish, which some might find attractive.
Kosbie sees the expansion of the curriculum to Spanish as the natural next step to provide access to all. “Our eyes were opened to the fact that just because we built this curriculum and offered it for free, it wouldn’t have the impact we thought it would in certain parts of the world unless we did additional work,” he said. “And that work, expanding into a language of need, therefore, became part of the mission.”
The Robotics Academy
Founded nearly 20 years ago by Robin Shoop, director of educational outreach for NREC, and John Bares, the former director of NREC and now CEO of Carnegie Robotics, Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy (CMRA) has long delivered curriculum and computer science education to those who might not otherwise have access. Of the various outreach programs offered under the umbrella of the Robotics Academy, two stand out in furthering their mission to teach computer science and STEM in underserved areas and communities: the SMART program, a robotics technician pre-apprenticeship program, and the P3G (Player-Programmed Partner) Game Design outreach workshops. Both programs first targeted underserved communities in Pittsburgh but have experienced substantial growth since.
SMART
Witnessing decades ago the large number of tech companies spinning off from NREC and SCS, Bares foresaw the need for workers, as well as the need for good jobs in Pittsburgh. Now, the CMRA workforce development program strives to get underserved learners on a pathway toward a career in robotics — specifically, as robotics technicians. Initial funding for the project came from the ARM (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing) Institute.
“First we interviewed and observed robotics technicians as well as the hiring managers at advanced manufacturing and tech companies to draft the KSA, or knowledge, skills and attitudes list,” said Vu Nguyen, co-director of the Robotics Academy and software engineer in RI. From this information, the team developed coursework around five micro-certification areas of need: electrical, fabrication, software, mechanical and robotics integration. Each SMART course provides foundational knowledge in its area and coursework that is project-based and hands on.
A wide range of people showed up to the first SMART cohort, ranging from ages 16 to 28, many of whom had dropped out of high school, were working on their GEDs or who didn’t have a plan yet for their future.
“To reach learners up to 28 years old, we partner with folks in the communities who have the keys and rapport with the kids,” said Nguyen. Typically, these community partners are program directors teaching life skills, interview skills, tech or financial literacy courses.
The SMART program integrates their tech program alongside these established programs. Creating the micro-certification courses provides the training material and assessment needed to be successful as a robotics technician. Next, CMRA worked with community partners to directly deliver the training to underserved communities around the Pittsburgh region. The program received additional funding from Pittsburgh workforce investment board, Partner- 4Work. And thus, the SMART-ER (SMART Extended Reach) program was born. The program worked with seven different community partners, in eight different underserved areas in the Pittsburgh region. Though the program is a pre-apprenticeship and does not connect participants directly to jobs upon completion, the skills they receive do prepare them for the burgeoning world of robotics and tech manufacturing.
“We started 20 years ago when there were barely any schools that had robotics programs,” said Nguyen. “Since then, we’ve taught hundreds of teachers every single year and everyone we talk to has some form of robotics programs — and they’re still growing them.”
While much remains ahead to give all kids access to robotics, seeing the growth of the program regionally, nationally and globally gives Nguyen a tremendous sense of pride.
“I came from nothing,” said Nguyen. “My parents came from Vietnam with two trash bags for their luggage. I grew up in Bloomfield and went to Pittsburgh Public Schools. And I felt like I was given so much that I want others to have that opportunity for a good career.”
“They learn about testing, iteration design, prototyping and in the end, they are designing a game even if they don’t realize it.”
P3G Game Design
The Player-Programmed Partner Games Design program (P3G0 is an NSF-funded project that seeks to increase access to informal STEM education in out of- school time settings. Using a game-design oriented program, students learn about human-robot interaction in a co-robotic context, while developing a game along the way. The project poses the question: how can we get kids to learn about co-robotics (working alongside robots), to code and enjoy it, without even knowing they’re coding? The answer: gamifying the process of making a game.
P3G teams take the first few weeks of the outside-of school program to simply ask the kids questions about the games they already play. “We amass all that data,” said Nguyen, “the things they like and don’t like, the types of characters they enjoy. The team’s game designers and programmers develop a game prototype containing the features the kids requested. Then the teams present the game back to the kids and ask for feedback. Whatever the kids don’t like, the team changes. Whether the characters are too realistic or if they’d rather they throw a football instead of wielding a battle-axe, the team does another iteration.
“They learn about testing, iteration design and prototyping, and in the end, they are designing a game even if they don’t realize it,” said Nguyen. “When we showcase the games, students say ‘I made this game. I’m one of the creators.’ And having them identify with the process is when we know they’re hooked.”
Once completed, the playable games are available at www.cmu.edu/roboticsacademy/Research/p3g.html Nguyen clearly has fun designing games with the kids. “Each game is different because they have been designed by different cultures and different communities,” said Nguyen.
Alongside the SMART and P3G projects, CMRA develops curricula and teaching resources for educators around the globe. The Robotics Academy curricula is available online at no cost. Anywhere from 30-50,000 users a month access the system.
“We hear from teachers around the world that thank us for putting this out there. Hearing them actually using our materials and our programs, that’s cool to see,” said Nguyen.
CS Academy students designed these award-winning game using the P3G program.
The examples included in this story represent only a portion of the programs SCS devotes to providing free computer science curricula and experiences to those who need them. Programs have been created to provide access for middle schoolers, community college students, and more. In essence, everyone who might want access. Regardless of if these individuals end up pursuing computer science as a career, SCS recognizes its stake in opening up this world of opportunity, to offer our knowledge and resources so that others may demonstrate their potential in the field.
“Each of us have people in our lives that ‘poured’ into us and helped us to become who we are,” said Darla Coleman. “On a grander scale, SCS wants to pay it forward. There’s no obligation, but there’s a strong sense of contributing to humanity that is important.” ■