As CAITE prepares to launch a peer mentoring initiative at our partner campuses, we have drawn on our many resources and networks, including inviting Becky Packard, associate professor in the department of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke College, to advise us on program design. Packard is an expert on mentoring and persistence, especially among women, minorities, and first-generation students in STEM fields. Her work has been supported by NSF, and she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Following a review of promising mentoring models and an overview of objectives and options at our January retreat, we are planning support "supplemental peer instruction" (SPI) at several campuses beginning next academic year. Sometimes called "facilitated study groups" (FSG), this model trains student leaders to run regular academic support sessions for specific classes that they successfully completed. This model is already in place at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in its Learning Resource Center, and used by the Urban Massachusetts Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.

Supplemental instruction has been shown to increase student performance and progression through subsequent courses in a sequence, with particularly striking results for students from underrepresented minority groups, particularly in introductory courses. (Peterfreund, A., Rath, K., Xenos, S., and Bayliss, F. 2007-08. The Impact of Supplemental Instruction on Students in STEM Courses: Results from San Francisco State University. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice 9 (4): 487-503.

 

6th Annual Regional College Fair draws 700
BATEC and CAITE held the 6th Annual High Tech College Fair at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center on April 3, 2009. This year over 700 students from 18 Boston, Greater Boston and Metro-Area schools attended the event. College admission representatives from 46 regional colleges, including 2 and 4-year institutions, connected with the students, many of whom are enrolled in IT classes in high school.

The event is designed to build early IT educational awareness and college pathway connections for high school sophomores and juniors enrolled in technology courses. During the event, students attended workshops on Understanding IT Careers & Education led by Microsoft's Academic Evangelists Lauren Day, Aimee Sprung and Alfred Thompson.

Another unique feature of the College Fair is the one-to-one college advising sessions provided for all students. Over 35 counselors from local organizations and educational institutions met with students individually to discuss their academic record and gave them guidance about their post-secondary options and aspirations. The students also attended an admissions and financial aid session offered by the College Fair's organizers at their schools before attending the event.

The students' gender representation was 60% female and 40% male. The race and ethnic composition were: Asian (14%); Black (30%); Hispanic (32%); Native American (.65%); White (16%); and Other/Multi- Racial (7%).

Next year, the BATEC IT Regional College Fair is scheduled on April 2, 2010. For more information on how to register and participate, please contact Jibril Solomon.


Female students conquer computer assembly at HCC
Students in Tracy Corliss's spring course (CIS 111, Computer Concepts with Applications)  at Holyoke Community College were faced with a hardware challenge. Teams of students were given computer hardware pieces and asked to assemble the computer, using teamwork. After putting the pieces together, the teams would disassemble the computer to allow the next team to complete the challenge. Female students said they were surprised that the task was not intimidating, and it gave them a whole new perspective on computer hardware.  The course is a 4-credit class that serves as a foundation to higher level courses in computer information systems (CIS).


Bristol Community College hosts several spring activities
Bristol Community College (BCC) has been bustling with activity this semester. Activities included college tours for middle school students and a programing contest as well as a college fair and a computer literacy course.

Bristol started off the semester with a College Tech Fair. Students from a variety of high schools were brought in to learn about computing at BCC on January 13. This year the fair featured a seminar on computer forensics, a round table with alumni and a careers discussion sponsored by Microsoft. In addition, college officials talked about admissions and financial aid, and the CIS department talked about the options available within the department. BCC has also been running a computer literacy class targeted at unemployed adults and adults working toward their GED. The class lasts for 6 weeks (last class on 4/27).

Bristol CC's partnership with Citizen's School in New Bedford continued this spring during the week of March 16, spring vacation at BCC. Students from New Bedford middle schools attended a class on logic with Alice and programming with Game Maker taught by BCC students. The 165 students worked on forensics problems with these programs and then broke into four groups to take an orientation tour about attending college. This effort, working with Citizen's Schools to get their students thinking about college, was coordinated by Rose Ferro (adjunct BCC faculty) and Christina Janzekovich (BCC student).

On March 18, BCC held their annual high school programming contest. FIfty high school students were given a variety of computer forensics problems to be solved by working alone or in teams. The students used a variety of programming languages available in the BCC labs but on only one computer per team. As they completed the problems, teachers and advisers were available to talk with them about related careers.

Later in the week, about 45 students traveled to BCC to work on forensics, LOGO and Alice from Morton and Kuss middle schools in Fall River. "The students were absolutely absorbed as they worked in groups to solve the forensics problem and then on their own with LOGO and Alice," said CAITE co-PI Priscilla Grocer, who coordinated the event. "The teacher from Morton got back to me to tell me that the next day two girls approached her individually and told her they had gone home and talked with their parents and decided on the career path they wanted to pursue and it was definitely computer forensics.  [Computer forensics] was challenging because it involved problem solving and creativity and was doing a good thing."


Holyoke middle school girls meet women in IT and computing at UMass 01000111011010010111001001101100011100110010000001001001011011100110001100101110 Not sure of the translation? Ask a middle schooler from Holyoke.

Continuing CAITE's collaboration with Girls Incorporated of Holyoke begun last August, a second group of middle school girls visited the University of Massachusetts Amherst in February. This group toured information technology workplaces to learn about computer-related careers and also participated in a workshop led by female UMass computer science students.

UMass computer science graduate students Megan Olson, Naomi Fox, Negin Salajegheh, Jackie Kennedy and undergraduate Stevie Sellers presented a workshop introducing binary numbers to the girls. The activity is one of several designed for all ages that available free of charge from csunplugged.org.

This tech field trip was arranged by CAITE along with the academic computing department at the Office of Information Technology (organized by Laura Yahn, coordinator of instructional design and faculty support). The girls were participating in a program over school vacation week that introduces them to information technology.

Sarah Dunton, director of youth development at Girls Inc. said of the day: "The girls left excited about completing their names in binary code and looking at more websites about IT schools and professions. It is a gift to have a program such as CAITE and CS and IT programs so close and accessible to girls living in Holyoke. Both trips that CAITE and Girls Inc. have collaborated on have allowed the staff at Girls Inc. to bring the Build IT curriculum to life. We can talk about IT degrees, learn about IT degrees, and research IT professions and degrees; however, meeting women in IT and computer science allows the girls to really comprehend how they can continue their IT learning beyond a week-long or 2-week long program."

Girls Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring girls to seek education and meet physical and intellectual challenges. Holyoke Girls Inc. is one of eight sites nationally that are piloting "Build IT, " which originated in Alameda County, Calif. and was developed with support of the National Science Foundation and the Noyce Foundation.

Faculty from CAITE partner campuses will gather in June at UMass Lowell to learn how art and robotics can be combined to interest underrepresented students in computer science and IT. Lowell faculty Holly Yanco and Fred Martin, and Diana Coluntino, youth arts program coordinator of the Revolving Museum, will lead a workshop to disseminate their successful Lowell-based project across Massachusetts.
 
"Artbotics" started as a collaboration of UMass Lowell with the Revolving Museum and Lowell High School that used project-based learning to engage students in computing. University students of all majors were recruited into an elective course, "Artbotics," which combines basic principles of art and computer science, using low-cost robotics technology for embedded control (the Super Cricket). The undergraduates created interactive projects for public exhibition and also worked side-by-side with and mentored high school students in workshops at the Revolving Museum. The university and high school projects were mounted in a public exhibit at the museum, open to students, family members, and the public--thus exposing the public to computing projects.

The CAITE-sponsored workshop will train CAITE campus faculty to launch some or all of the Artbotics model on their own campuses. Holyoke Community College will be the first site, working with a robotics class scheduled for fall 2009.

CAITE campuses will be given priority for registration for the June 2009 workshop, as space is limited. For more information see the Artbotics home page or contact Artbotics project director, Phyllis Procter, (978) 934-3625.


Plan now for professional development in July
Summer institutes sponsored by the Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC) and CAITE will begin the week of July 6, 2009.  The summer institutes are professional development workshops offered to Massachusetts high school teachers and college faculty at no cost. The institutes will take place this year at Bristol Community College, Bunker Hill Community College and the University of Massachusetts Boston. Courses being planned include-- Learn to Teach Java, iJava, Innov8, Microsoft's Cambridge Research Center Tour, Java Programming, Teaching Interactive Multimedia with Flash and Dreamweaver, Cisco, and  Employability Skills in Online Learning. Others will be added. Course descriptions and registration information will be made available on BATEC's homepage: www.batec.org soon.  Please visit the site often for updates!


K-12 educators to learn to use robots to teach STEM
CAITE is please to co-sponsor a summer workshop for teachers to introduce robots into the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classrooms throughout Massachusetts.  The workshop has been filled since March and will include 50 participants from across the state. The STREAM workshop will provide educators the opportunity to explore how they might use robotics in their own STEM instruction through interactive sessions as well as through presentations by other educators currently using robotics as a way to teach STEM. Representatives of local technology companies will also describe potential careers for students interested in robotics and STEM disciplines.  The workshop will be held at iRobot in Bedford, Mass. June 25-26.  Workshops co-sponsors include the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, iRobot, and UMass Lowell. For more information or to inquire about the waiting list, visit the STREAM website.

A new electronic textbook for elementary Java programming, called iJava, is being used by teachers and students in six Boston-area high schools. With the support of CAITE, the resource is being enhanced by two students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst funded through the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. The iJava textbook, developed by UMass Amherst Professor Robert Moll, is the ultimate in interactive training in programming: repeatedly throughout the book, students read a few paragraphs of explanation and then type computer code at their textbook, which responds to the submission in real time with right-or-wrong judgments.

Sean Dooley (right) and Mario Barrenechea (left), both sophomores at UMass, are now taking the book a step further by creating a more dynamic and creative way of experiencing the text by developing a java applet for each chapter of the book. Students are able to use the applet to actually run the program in the book in order to see what it does. This "canned execution" goes through the code to explain what is produced in greater detail--clarifying the coding process.

With parents working in information technology, Mario and Sean have both been interested in computers most of their lives. When they discovered computer science in high school, it was a natural progression for them to continue their studies in college. Their experiences in the UMass computer science department so far have been top notch. "It's been so nice to have professors who really care about our learning. That's really what we need to get people to want to learn," Sean said. Professor Moll has been instrumental in engaging Mario and Sean in this research. Mario commented that while "we talk about the conceptual, artistic and creative aspects of the work, we then add the technical logistics around the time and work involved," all of which is based on "learning how to entice the students" who will be using iJava.

iJava already has a track record at UMass Amherst. In fall 2004, only 63% of students in the introductory Java class passed the course final exam. After the introduction of iJava, pass rates rose to 85%. The new student-designed improvements may result in even higher pass rates and persistence in the future. For more information..

Bookmark our News and Events page to keep abreast of CAITE and related events all year 'round.

Send us questions and comments you may have about this e-newsletter, any of our projects, or ways that you and your organization can join us in broadening participation in computing.