The following grant was primarily proposed to investigate the role of HBCU computing students in supporting computer science education efforts in a majority Black urban area (Atlanta, Georgia). Even though the COVID-19 pandemic caused adjustments to be made, the grant was successful in identifying several successful interventions. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers from Bear Creek Middle School and Banneker High School were supported in high school computing courses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, two virtual outreach programs were taught using MIT App Inventor and Game Development using Construct3. The PI received support from and contributed to the Computer Science Advisory Board for the State of Georgia. The PI also dissiniated findings to others in the state by serving on a panel for the CS4GA Summit: Beyond Access where he shared his insights for the CSforAll project entitled, “HBCU Responsibility in Developing African-American CS Identity. The PI also supported Computer Science education efforts in the state of Virginia through the NSF Funded Project (#2010256) entitled, “Reaching Across the Hallway: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Supporting Computer Science in Rural Schools”.  The PI also was able to share best practices in the state of Florida through his participation on the advisory board for the NSF Funded (#2048480) Camp DIALOGS Program led by Kristy Boyer at the University of Florida. In the Spring of 2021, Morehouse partnered with the Human Services Department of a county in the metro Atlanta area to host a computing outreach program targeted at Black male middle school students. The program was offered virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The curriculum of the program consisted of a high-level overview of computing careers, game development fundamentals, and character development. The program was offered free of charge to qualifying middle school students who reside in the county. During fall 2021, eight Morehouse College students were split between three schools in the Atlanta area to assist in teaching Computer Science Principles and game development to K-12 students. At Mableton Elementary School, two students independently taught game development using Construct3, an interactive block-coding software used to create simplified 2D video games, to 4th and 5th-grade students. Each week these students were taught how to autonomously maneuver through the software to gain the ability to create their own game. At both Benjamin Banneker High School and Benjamin Mays High Schools, respectively, three students assisted a high school teacher by fielding questions from students in the classroom as new material was presented and carried out through various in-class and homework assignments. These high school classes followed a newly implemented CS curriculum that has been introduced by the Georgia Department of Education. In summary, the award led to multiple in-person, hybrid, and virtual interventions to connect HBCU students to teachers and their students at majority Black schools in the metro Atlanta area. These interventions led to several opportunities to share best practices to stakeholders across multiple states in the nation.

Last Modified: 05/07/2023
Modified by: Kinnis Gosha