Computer scientists are in high demand now and the field is expected to continue growing. Some K-12 teachers are introducing these skills to their students early on. A workshop in Rapid City is helping middle and high school educators teach those marketable computer skills.
Forty teachers are scheduled to attend the “How to Teach Computer Science” workshop this week. The five day course is sponsored by the not-for-profit, Code.org. Teri Bauerly (Bow-er-Ly) is teaching at the workshop.
“People who were teachers, classroom teachers, wrote the curriculum and so it’s really easy to use lesson plans. It’s all free. It just helps you learn about the foundation of their beliefs and good classroom practices and is really easy to implement.”
Bauerly has been a middle school teacher for six years, but is leaving to start instructing future teachers. She’s certified to teach with Code.org and used the techniques in her own classroom. She says what she learned worked well for her students.
“Uh, they love it. It’s one of their favorite classes because they get to be creative. They use a lot of technology but still don’t understand a lot of how it works. So we think you can just give a kid an iPad and they already know how to use it. But a lot of the technical things or what happens with your data that you use or being safe online-that’s still really new to them.
Bauerly says when kids are exposed to computer science at a young age, it builds their interest.
“They might say, well I’m not interested in being an engineer but then they do website design and they can make a website about something they’re passionate about like animal rescue-and they get really excited about that.”
Bauerly says that means more kids will go on to pursue computer science as a career or hobby.