Week 0
Completed project proposal outline, set up Git repository repo for weekly progress blog, and solidified project idea with group and professor.
Week 1
Started formatting and uploading information to the website and began outlining the project proposal.
Week 2
We worked on setting up a rough timeline, and started our background research and competitor research to inform our project motivation. A large part of our research was informing ourselves of what a typical public high school might offer and what initiatives are available to provide computer science education. We also started drafting our project proposal and researching lesson plans with approval of more project choices with the professor.
Week 3
The project proposal was completed this week, including a description, background, competitor research, motivation, course overview/vision and minimum/target/reach goals. We also added a draft of our timeline and adapted a sample outline for our lesson plans from CS For All. The website to track progress was updated with weekly entries and the final project proposal was published to the website as well. We also had a meeting with the Access Barnard department of Barnard College, since they have a partnership with public NYC high schools to promote Barnard, Opportunity Programs, and the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP). Since this state-wide program supports students that are interested in STEM fields at Barnard, Raul Cervantes of Access Barnard was interested in the possibility of us teaching a computer science course to high school students. We will continue to explore this possibility with him, since it could be an opportunity for us to try out a lesson plan with our expected demographic.
Week 4
This week we were able to finish the first draft of the first day curriculum, including a lesson plan and course description. In order to do this, we created sample templates of lesson plans and presentations/slides with a set outline and design to be used by instructors and to create a template for future sessions.
Week 5
This week we revised the first draft of the lesson plan for Day 1 and plan to receive feedback on it from the professor. We started to draft up the lesson plan for Day 2 which covers the basics for the requirements within a standard CS major.
Week 6
This week we continued our work for the Day 2 curriculum. We would like the Day 2 curriculum to cover the CS Core Curriculum and the major requirements. We plan to meet outside of class to further discuss the vision for this lesson as there still needs to be a bit of work done in terms of how we plan to structure this particular lesson. One of the main questions we need to answer is if we should use Columbia’s CS major as a standard or the CUNY CS major requirements
Week 7
This week we enjoyed a week off from working on the project, and got some well-needed rest. :)
Week 8
This week we reviewed the Day 2 and 3 curriculum drafts and spoke about any improvements we can make now and going forward now that we have a third of the coursework drafted. We were able to present our project for the first time in class and received beneficial feedback on how best to frame our background and purpose for our final proposal. We also contacted Raul Cervantes again to check for any updates about the trial courses we could work on. So far, Raul is waiting on more details about the possible trial class, so we will hear from him when he has more information.
Week 9
This week, after a group discussion we made the decision to make a few changes to the project proposal in terms of the order of the lessons. We felt that the content would make more sense in a different order for students that are first being introduced to the field of computer science. The CS curriculum class is now Lesson 2 and the CS Basics class will be lesson 3. We were also able to complete the Day 5 lesson plan, individually look over all the days 1-5, and regroup to make a few improvements. We uploaded Days 1-5, and are planning to speak with professor Brian Plancher to check in on our progress and goals for the rest of the course before we start the diagnostic assessments and presentations for each class.
Week 10
This week we got in contact with Bobby Koeth III from the Columbia University Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). We got an overview/refresh of the program at length since two of us were former tutors, and we learned a lot from the perspective of a pedagogy research project that was applied as a voluntary after school program for NYC public school students. After the call, we decided to rework our diagnostic to better empower students and motivate them to be in charge of their own learning. We also began our CS Bridge Abstract to serve as a more formal final progress update, guidance for future CS Bridge contributors, and a note to educators about the way the CS Bridge program aims to function. We were able to solidify as a group our choice of teaching style, and since our program is voluntary for participants, we felt like our biggest priority is to be engaging and student-centered.
Week 11
This week, we met up with Melissa Wright of the Barnard College Center for Engaged Pedagogy (CEP) and heard feedback about our approach for the assessments as well as receiving resources about active listening that could be useful for our CS Bridge abstract. We completed our initial and closing diagnostic assessments and updated our Day 1 lesson plan to better fit the downsized and more approachable diagnostic. We began drafting our CS Bridge abstract which includes a note from us as the founders, a message to educators, and will include a tentative progress update of CS Bridge as we near the end of our development. We also began drafting the Day 1 presentation, which will serve as a more detailed guide to running the class for educators and will be an example of future CS Bridge class presentations.
Week 12
We completed the Day 1 slides and updated our slide template to have a more dynamic and eye-catching look that could be more appealing to students. We also finished the CS Bridge final progress update with a note from us and all the information on our pedagogy values as an initiative for both future contributors of the CS Bridge curriculum as well as educators that would run the program. We began working on our CS Bridge write-up/abstract to hand in for class as well as the presentation we will be using to showcase our work.
Week 13 + Week 14
We completed our project PowerPoint and presented our final project to the class and attended the rest of the class presentations. We completed our final project project report during this time and published the rest of the project materials on the website.