丹尼尔·威尔逊

2023年4月20日

随着社会迅速采用人工智能等新技术，了解其背后的科学变得越来越重要。

“We're so reliant on (technology), and so, shouldn't you have the power to understand how it works, why it works that way?” asked Anna Baynes, assistant professor of Computer Science at 囊状态. “Any industry you go into, you're going to have to use a computer.”

Key to that understanding is high-quality K-12 computer science education, and since 2021, 囊状态’s Computer Science Supplementary Authorization (CSSA) program has trained area educators to teach the subject.

该项目获得了美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的新资助，继续为当地课堂提供多样化、高素质的计算机科学教师。

The $360,000 全民计算机科学（CSForAll）资助 will fund partial tuition reimbursement for up to 10 teachers per year over the next several years. The grant also will fund the program’s growth as it evolves. Previously, the CSU Chancellor’s Office paid for the reimbursements.

“Businesses that traditionally don't involve computer science are now recruiting our computer scientists and computer engineers. In order to meet that demand, we need to be graduating more computer scientists and computer engineers.” -- Kevan Shafizadeh, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science

The CSForAll grant is part of the NSF’s effort to allow students to participate in computer science and computational thinking education. Four CSU campuses – 囊状态, San Francisco State, San Jose State, and Sonoma State – received a total of $2 million in grant funding.

“There's a big push to provide these (programs in the CSU), because that's where we have a lot of teacher credential programs,” said Baynes, who was among 囊状态 faculty who developed the program in 2021 and partnered to obtain the grant. “With the CSSA program, we're trying to make more teachers who have that background (in computer science), so they feel confident in the classroom.”

CSSA是工程与计算机科学学院、教育学院以及管理该项目的继续教育学院的合作项目。

Credentialed teachers who complete the fully online program can apply for a “supplementary authorization” allowing them to teach computer science in K-12 settings even if their undergraduate degree was not in the field.

In addition to Baynes, the faculty members behind the program include Computer Science Professors Jun Dai and Xiaoyan “Sherry” Sun; 教育学院负责教学和学生成功的副院长Deidre Sessoms； and Teaching Credentials Professor Chia-Jung Chung, who ensured the program’s curriculum was relevant to current educators.

“You don't teach something to a 22-year-old the same way you teach it to a 12-year-old,” Sessoms said. “(Chung) was able to help our faculty in Computer Science learn how to teach a teacher with methods that match what the teacher is going to use, that are engaging, that are focused on problems that youth care about, that are interactive.”

项目经理杰西卡·莫里森（jessica Morrison）说，从一开始，CSSA项目的目的就是为K-12的全职教师提供灵活性，对他们来说，一边工作一边上课可能是一项挑战。 该项目从6月持续到12月，包括四门课程，每次上一门，而不是同时上，课程安排在晚上。

“While … the courses are online, they do have specific meeting dates, which have synchronous components,” Morrison said. “So, the students don't really feel like they're just doing their own thing online. They feel supported in that it's kind of a cohesive class with other teachers … (which) lends to a great deal of community.”

综援计划也可能惠及Sac州和地区雇主。 工程与计算机科学学院院长凯万·沙菲扎德（Kevan Shafizadeh）说，让更多的K-12教育工作者教授计算机科学，可以吸引更多、更多样化的群体在大学里主修这一领域。

“Most people don't realize that computer science and data analysis is becoming more embedded in everything,” Shafizadeh said. “Businesses that traditionally don't involve computer science are now recruiting our computer scientists and computer engineers. In order to meet that demand, we need to be graduating more computer scientists and computer engineers.”

除此之外，像所有STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）领域一样，学习计算机科学有助于K-12学生培养解决问题和批判性思维等技能，Sessoms说。

“Clearly, we live in a technologically complex world,” she said. “You need to learn how to analyze data, and you need to understand … how to reason quantitatively, how to make sense out of the statistics that you read every day about the climate, about the world. And computer science skills are a really great way to teach that.”

For more information on the CSSA program, which is accepting applications through May 26, visit the program’s webpage.