OSU-Cascades professor granted $628K to expand K-12 science education

Published 1:00 pm Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Jill Hubbard, an Oregon State University-Cascades computer science professor, has been awarded $628,000 to expand K-12 computer science education throughout the state.

Computer science classes have been an option in Oregon schools for a long time, but only a small group of students have generally participated, said Hubbard. She wants to figure out why, and to change it.

“Computing has changed a lot in the past 20 years, but computing education really hasn’t,” said Hubbard. “It’s very recently started to change, so the question is how do we change it to make sure that everybody, regardless of their chosen career, has an opportunity to learn about this?”

The funding is part of a statewide effort to ensure all Oregon students have access to computer science education by the 2027-28 school year. One goal is to ensure curriculum is inclusive. Currently, just 4% of high schoolers are enrolled in computer science classes, though 41% of Oregon schools offer them.

The award will help fund support specialists, professional development and summer workshops for teachers and workshops for administrators and counselors who want to support computer science. Overall, the funding will help build support structures, said Hubbard.

Schools can lack space for computer science classes, and students might feel computer science isn’t for them due to how the subject is perceived. Lack of diversity in participating students is also a barrier, as is a lack of professional development for teachers.

“When I started teaching computer science, it was more focused on the skill of programming,” said Hubbard. “Very skill-based, specific things, which would make sense 20 years ago…(Now) a lot of it is starting with how do we figure out if we’re going to buy a computer? Do we just buy it based on how much money we have, or do we try to figure out who’s going to use it, and how the computer works, and what best serves our interests and our needs?”

She is collaborating with engineering, computer science and education professors at Portland State University and the University of Oregon to implement the statewide effort. The award was funded in part from a federal Well-Rounded Access Program grant given to the Oregon Department of Education, according to Hubbard.

Hubbard’s own focus is in working with and supporting teachers and learning how to partner with educators and administrators.

“People that decide to pursue careers in computer science or technology should represent the diversity of our citizens,” said Hubbard. “It’s also about ensuring the things we create in our world serve our people, to help make our world more just and more equitable, in addition to being more prosperous.”

Exploring Computer Science is a research-based computer science curriculum Hubbard has already had success with, that was developed by education researchers at the University of Oregon. It is organized as a two-year professional development training.

Don Carter, computer science and robotics teacher at Bend High School, wrote in an email that the training was different from any other he had taken. Many of the activities were done without computers to teach problem solving and algorithm development.

He has changed his curriculum to emphasize collaboration and communication between students, and found that the changes helped. His students find his classes approachable, he wrote.

“Many have realized that they can learn to work with computers and they don’t have to be a typical ‘expert’ at code or programming,” Carter wrote.

He’s excited for what his students do in the future, whether it involves computer science or not.

Josh Davis helped create the computer science pathway at Redmond’s Ridgeview High School within the last few years.

“It was a really eye-opening experience for me in terms of what computer science is and what it isn’t,” said Davis of the Exploring Computer Science training. “It is programming, but it’s a lot more than that…We’re trying to reach underserved populations in computer science.”

Davis started a club for girls who code, and is excited to expand computer science education.

“If we really want to actually solve the world’s problems and address them…we need the diversity that’s reflected locally and obviously throughout the state and country, but globally as well,” said Davis. “We need everyone’s talents and skills to achieve that.”

Oregon Health Authority offers naloxone kits to schools