Black Hills State University has received a $785,000 grant to bring computer science classes to rural and under-served regions of South Dakota.
The grant comes from the National Science Foundation. It builds on a partnership between BHSU, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and five school districts in the Black Hills.
Ben Sayler directs the Sanford Science Education Center and is a professor of physical science and mathematics at Black Hills State. He says the "Exploring Computer Science" curriculum gives students a broad understanding of the field through lessons on coding, human-computer interaction, problem solving, and more.
"Students often come to computer science thinking of it as strictly coding or app development - or they might even think about it as the use of existing applications. Computer science leads to the development of lots of tools that student have had a lot of exposure to by the time they get to high school...they typically haven't had a lot of exposure to the actual science of computers, and how they might develop those tools and applications themselves," Sayler says.
Black Hills State hosted a summer workshop where educators learned the Exploring Computer Science curriculum. Sayler says 22 high schools now participate in the program. He says the goal is to implement the lessons at 20 additional high schools over the next three years.
Sayler hopes to expand the curriculum to Native American communities in the State. He attended last week's South Dakota Indian Education Summit and says administrators at schools located on or near Indian reservations are interested in the program.