Google grant funds courses
JONESBORO — Arkansas State University’s Department of Computer Science recently received a portion of a $34,685 Google grant that will fund an online computer science course to support educators interested in learning to teach high school computer science in Arkansas.
The grant is a part of Google’s CS4HS initiative from which 27 institutions received grants in the United States and 107 worldwide. Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts computer science education specialist Daniel Moix will help roll out the courses.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to engage teachers as learners through this program,” Moix said. “We will also be growing the next generation of computer science education leaders at the same time. Three Arkansas teachers who learned to teach computer science through the Coding Arkansas’ Future program will be mentoring participants next year.”
A four-hour course will be offered to more than 50 teachers in the spring of 2018 and
18 of them will receive scholarships for tuition funded by Google. The course will help teachers obtain credit and addon licensure for teaching computer science.
A-State’s share of the grant is $15,300 and will provide the
$850 tuition fee per person for the participating teachers. Any tuition and fees beyond that amount will be paid by the individual.
Edward Hammerand, associate professor of computer science, will teach the online course to support teacher development in computer science. Moix, who completed advanced education leadership curriculum degrees at Arkansas State through the online degree programs, will implement a separate professional development and training program outside of the college credit option.
“Our department is pleased to be a part of making young people in our region aware of educational and vocational opportunities in computer science at an earlier age, and the teachers participating in this opportunity will be able to do just that,” said Hung-Chi Su, chair of the Department of Computer Science.