Mobilizing for Innovative Computer Science Teaching and Learning is a targeted National Science Foundation Math Science Partnership funded for 2010-2015. The core partners are: UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (Center X), the UCLA Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA).
Mobilize builds upon teenagers’ enchantment, fascination, and engagement with mobile technology. At the heart of Mobilize is the CENS Participatory Sensing system–-an innovative method of data collection and analysis in which individuals use mobile phones and web servers to systematically collect and interpret data about issues important to them and their communities.
Mobilize will create Participatory Sensing hands-on, inquiry-based curricular units and teacher professional development for computer science, mathematics, and science high school classes. Mobilize projects bring together STEM and computational thinking with students’ sense of social involvement in their own communities.
Mobilize is especially committed to assuring access to quality instruction, in schools with high numbers of African Americans and Latino/a students. Mobilize projects will first be introduced in the Los Angeles Unified School District schools. In LAUSD, interdisciplinary teams of Exploring Computer Science, mathematics, life and physical science, as well as social science students and teachers will work on Mobilize projects. As computer science is now an integral part of innovation across all fields, a goal of Mobilize is to strengthen computer science instruction throughout our educational system.
Mobilize sits at the crux of several critical issues facing our country: How can we foster innovation and inventiveness, improving STEM education for students and teachers, and how do we guarantee quality and rigorous education for all students? What we learn about increasing opportunities for inquiry-based, rigorous learning of computer science and about innovative teacher professional development, especially in large urban school district, will be critically important for the entire country across multiple disciplines, communities, and institutions. Mobilize addresses the centrality of information technologies in our students’ lives, for whom a critical view of computing will be an increasingly important component as they enter the work force and engage as members and leaders of their communities.