Brown CS Blog

Bootstrap Announces A New STEM Education Model That Combines Computing, Modeling, And Physics

    None

    Bootstrap, one of the nation's leading computer science literacy programs, co-directed by Brown CS faculty members Shriram Krishnamurthi and Kathi Fisler (adjunct), continues to extend its reach. Bootstrap has just announced a partnership to use its approach to building systems to teach modeling in physics, an important component of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This project is a collaboration with STEMTeachersNYC, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Modeling Teachers Association.

    This new effort is part of the White House-inspired 100Kin10 initiative, which will create 100,000 new STEM teachers in ten years. A grant of $200,000 from 100Kin10 will fund this new collaboration. The project ("Modeling Physics, Computational Thinking, and Bootstrap") will help students learn computational thinking while learning basic physics concepts by writing programs to build models of the physical world.

    The two-year project will involve 20-24 teachers and reach about 1,000 students each year. It will equip teachers with a hands-on, inquiry-based pedagogy supported by a set of tested, engaging curriculum modules for classroom use. After the project period, all four project partners plan to promulgate the approach through professional development workshops for teachers throughout the country.