STEM for All Students

STEM education is important for all 21st century students, regardless of their career plans. STEM education teaches students the technical skills and collaboration techniques they need to be successful in our ever-changing, ever-growing world. Computer programming is a particularly important skill for students to have.

This year, I am teaching two sections of AP Computer Science Principles. Since the school I teach at is a magnet school, most of my students are interested in pursuing programming as a career. For those students, it is important that they build a strong programming foundation in high school. Personally, I did not take computer science classes until university and I wish that I had already had some background knowledge before being thrown in a programming class. However, computer science is also a valuable skill for students who do not plan to go into computer programming. Programming is crucial in several other fields, such as mathematics, business, science, social science and design. A lot of my classmates went into business with their applied mathematics degrees, and they are always expected to learn new programs and databases, such as Access, Python, and SAS. It is important for students going into science to be familiar with the different programs they will need to use to collect data for experiments. I also have a lot of students that want to go into graphic design. With the way the climate is now, it is nearly impossible to go into any kind of design career without knowing any programming. There has been a major shift within the past couple decades to place an emphasis on digital graphic design.

The curriculum for the computer science class I teach is from code.org, which is an organization that believes every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. This summer, I went to a code.org workshop that placed an emphasis on the importance of teaching computer science as early as possible and making it accessible to as many students as possible. Many students stray away from computer science because they believe it is "too hard." They think that only the smartest, top 1% of students can do computer programming. I'll admit that I have experienced this misconception first hand. Whenever I tell people about my college degree or the classes I teach, they are in awe. "You do computer programming?" This stigma is damaging to students and our society as a whole.

I believe that anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, background, and gender can do computer programming. However, I have noticed that there are large experience and knowledge gaps between computer science students. This year, I hope to explore the benefits of pair programming in my action research project.