Area high school students will get an upgrade in computer science education courtesy of a National Science Foundation grant to The University of Memphis.
The department of computer science received a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to improve computer-programming instruction at high schools in Memphis and Shelby County.
"This was a two-part goal of community outreach and attracting and retaining better students to our program," said Sajjan Shiva, director and professor of computer science. "We will be training students here in programming and problem solving and pairing them with high school teachers."
Area high schools participating in the program are Bartlett, Collierville, East, Overton, Ridgeway and Central. Investigators of the project hope to expand to more schools in the future.
"Any additional instruction or exposure to technology will be beneficial to students," said Barbara King, principal at East High School. "In addition, whenever you can pair teachers with assistants and reduce the student-teacher ratio, it's advantageous to the students."The grant will add to the fellowships established for undergraduate and graduate students in computer science at The U of M.
Six graduate fellows were selected this year. Nine graduate students and one undergraduate will be selected in the programs second and third years.
"The fellowship students have to spend 10 hours a week at their designated area high school," said Lee McCauley, assistant professor of computer science and co-principal investigator of the project. "Five hours of that is actual classroom instruction."
The fellows will use innovative teaching techniques, such as modeling software and robots, in classrooms at the participating area high schools.
The state of Tennessee does not offer certification for computer science education like they do for math or history, said McCauley.
"Our program gets teachers a little more information about current technological and instructional developments," he said.
Linda Sherrell, associate professor of computer science, was the principal investigator of the project.
"We were seeing a country-wide decline in computer science undergraduates," McCauley said. "There were also a lot of incoming computer science students, who didn't have a lot of experience in programming or problem solving."
Barbara King is optimistic that the additional instruction will help East High and other students prepare for college level courses in computer science.
"I think that this will give them more confidence entering college and being competitive with other students," King said.
