BJC4NYC

Bringing BJC to New York City high schools!

01 Jan 2015

We are pleased to announce that the National Science Foundation has awarded a four-year grant (calendar years 2015-2018) to a partnership of four organizations that will create new BJC curriculum materials and bring them to 100 New York public high school teachers.

The partners are:

  • University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
  • Education Development Center (EDC)
  • New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE)
  • New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education (CSNYC)

High school teachers we’ve worked with so far have asked us for more K-12-friendly curriculum materials, including a teacher’s manual, scope and sequence, and lesson plans. EDC, a very experienced nonprofit developer of K-12 curricula, will work with UCB to create a complete new curriculum package while maintaining the BJC spirit of technical rigor, connection with real applications, and student-initiated projects.

UCB will lead three summer workshops in New York; NYCDOE will recruit and select 100 high school teachers to attend those workshops, serving a wide range of students representing all ethnic groups and all levels of academic success. Some of the teachers from the first workshop will help lead later workshops, so that the preparation of BJC teachers can continue after the project is over.

CSNYC is a nonprofit foundation that has played a leading role in getting computer science education into New York at all levels. Their role in this project will be to organize support and community-building for the BJC teachers during the school year. (UCB and EDC will also participate in school-year activities, including observation of BJC classes to inform a second round of curriculum development.)

We’re very excited about this new opportunity to have a major BJC impact on an entire city! New York teachers and principals, go to the NYCDOE BJC page for information about how to participate.

View a couple videos highighting this initaitive and experiences from students and teachers:

Beauty and Joy of Computing in NYC

Finding Beauty and Joy in Computing - When they were in high school, Mikael Moise took a course on computer science—and decided that they wanted to pursue the subject as a career. In this video, Mikael shares their story, and discusses how EDC’s Beauty and Joy of Computing course was the spark that lit the fire. Learn more: https://bjc.edc.org/