{"667223":{"#nid":"667223","#data":{"type":"news","title":"GTRI, Georgia Tech Launch Computer Science Pilot Program for Rural Georgia High Schools ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EEmerging technologies like artificial intelligence, data analytics and cybersecurity have taken the world by storm, and thanks to work being done by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), they are making their way into high school curriculums in rural Georgia. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EGeorgia Tech\u2019s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) and STEM@GTRI have launched a pilot program for rural Georgia school districts that provides high schoolers with access to interactive modules in the areas of coding, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, sensors and data visualization. The participating school districts for the 2022-2023 academic year include Cartersville City, Chattooga County, Effingham County, Fayette County, Gordon County, Haralson County, Liberty County, and Walker County. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe initiative, called the Computer Science for Rural Georgia High Schools Pilot, launched in summer 2022 and has been supported with funding from the State of Georgia. Roughly 400 students have participated in the pilot to date and up to 600 are expected to participate in total. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cThis program is increasing the exposure of opportunities in computer science and fields in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for a wider range of students, which is pretty exciting for us,\u201d said STEM@GTRI Director Leigh McCook. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe five modules, which include introduction to coding, advanced coding, principles of cybersecurity, sensors and data visualization, and foundations of artificial intelligence, were developed based on input from the participating school districts and tap into Tech\u2019s areas of expertise. Each module is two weeks in duration and is taught virtually by a Georgia Tech faculty member in collaboration with the classroom teacher, who is in person.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EFor the introduction to coding class, students learned the basics of coding and then were able to develop and deploy code to the Georgia Tech Robotarium, which is a remotely accessible swarm robotics research platform that is free and open to anyone. The advanced coding class is based on EarSketch, a free educational programming environment developed at Georgia Tech that is designed to teach coding in two widely used languages, Python and JavaScript, through music composing and remixing. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe modules on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and sensors and data visualization are aimed at addressing current workforce development needs in Georgia.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EWith an economic impact of nearly $54 billion, Georgia\u2019s technology sector accounts for 6% of the state\u2019s total workforce, according to recent \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cyberstates.org\/pdf\/CompTIA_Cyberstates_2022.pdf\u0022\u003Edata\u003C\/a\u003E from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). Georgia\u2019s estimated net tech employment for 2021 was 281,666 workers, a gain of 4,219 net new jobs year-over-year, according to CompTIA\u2019s latest data.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe number of software, programming, web and quality assurance (QA) occupations led the state for 2021, at 60,863. IT support specialists and repair technicians followed at 25,517; cybersecurity and systems engineers ranked third, at 24,076, per CompTIA. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EAfter the week-long instruction concluded, students completed a project where they solved a real-life problem facing their communities with the technologies they learned about. Then, Tech faculty and students provided the teams with feedback on their projects.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201c\u003Cspan\u003EIt\u2019s a little bit like a Shark Tank environment, where the students receive professional feedback on their projects,\u201d said CEISMC Director Lizanne DeStefano, who also serves as a professor of psychology at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EParticipating teachers said the pilot has given their students the opportunity to make a tangible connection to many valuable computer science topics.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cDay one was awesome!,\u201d said Stephanie A. Ratliff, a teacher at Chattooga High School. \u201cI just can\u2019t say thank you enough to GTRI and Georgia Tech for allowing us to be a part of this pilot venture.\u201d\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EGerald Nelms, a teacher at Bradwell Institute, a high school located in Liberty County, added: \u201cMy students were exposed to a wide world of possibilities that exist in computer science. We cannot wait for future collaborative efforts.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EOnce the pilot concludes at the end of the current fiscal year, DeStefano and McCook said they are eager to scale the program to more districts and create a resource repository for participating districts to draw from at any time.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cAt the very minimum, we will develop this into an educational resource and continue to host it on our websites,\u201d DeStefano said. \u201cIf there is continued funding, then we would be interested in refining the five modules and offering them to a larger number of districts.\u201d \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ESTEM@GTRI is GTRI\u0027s K-12 outreach program. Funded by the State of Georgia, the mission of STEM@GTRI is to inspire and engage Georgia educators and students by providing access to experts in STEM fields. CEISMC is a unit with Tech\u2019s Office of the Provost that serves as the primary connection point between faculty and students and the preK-12 STEM education community. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWriter: Anna Akins\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDesigner: Toya Ejike\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nPhoto Credit: CEISMC\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nGTRI Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nGeorgia Tech Research Institute\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nAtlanta, Georgia\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gtri.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI)\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).\u202fFounded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry.\u202fGTRI\u0027s renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EGeorgia Tech\u2019s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) and STEM@GTRI have launched a pilot program for rural Georgia school districts that provides high schoolers with access to interactive modules in the areas of coding, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, sensors and data visualization. The participating school districts for the 2022-2023 academic year include Cartersville City, Chattooga County, Effingham County, Fayette County, Gordon County, Haralson County, Liberty County, and Walker County. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech\u2019s CEISMC and STEM@GTRI have launched a pilot program for rural Georgia school districts that provides high schoolers with access to interactive modules in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics."}],"uid":"35832","created_gmt":"2023-04-11 13:23:52","changed_gmt":"2023-06-12 17:51:31","author":"Michelle Gowdy","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-04-06T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-04-06T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"670493":{"id":"670493","type":"image","title":"School District Map of Rural Computer Science Pilot for 2022-2023","body":"\u003Cp\u003EA map showing the Georgia school districts that participated in the rural computer science pilot for the 2022-2023 academic year. (Design credit: Toya Ejike).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1681217473","gmt_created":"2023-04-11 12:51:13","changed":"1681218208","gmt_changed":"2023-04-11 13:03:28","alt":"A map showing the Georgia school districts that participated in the rural computer science pilot for the 2022-2023 academic year. (Design credit: Toya Ejike). ","file":{"fid":"253358","name":"2023_COMM_0406_Georgia Graphic Custom.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/04\/11\/2023_COMM_0406_Georgia%20Graphic%20Custom.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/04\/11\/2023_COMM_0406_Georgia%20Graphic%20Custom.png","mime":"image\/png","size":2151503,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/04\/11\/2023_COMM_0406_Georgia%20Graphic%20Custom.png?itok=prhDi2NF"}}},"media_ids":["670493"],"groups":[{"id":"1276","name":"Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI)"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"42901","name":"Community"},{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"416","name":"GTRI"},{"id":"365","name":"Research"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"166902","name":"science and technology"},{"id":"167258","name":"STEM"},{"id":"192507","name":"Computer Science Pilot Program"},{"id":"342","name":"Georgia"},{"id":"411","name":"CEISMC"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E(Interim) Director of Communications\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EMichelle Gowdy\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EMichelle.Gowdy@gtri.gatech.edu\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E404-407-8060\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["michelle.gowdy@gtri.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}