Dallas ISD Gets Elementary CS Education via Amazon
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/29/20
Dallas
Independent School District
will be delivering computer science professional development to
teachers in all of its elementary schools, thanks to an arrangement
with Amazon. The company is working with BootUp,
a nonprofit professional development provider specializing in
elementary school education, to bring CS to the district's 154
elementaries as part of the Amazon
Future Engineer
program. The program will reach an estimated 78,000 students.
Because
of the uncertainty for the coming school year regarding whether
schools will be open or closed, BootUp has modified its professional
development to work in a virtual setting. The organization has
already worked with about 300 elementary schools in 10 states to help
teachers learn how to teach open-ended coding projects in free
programs such as Scratch
and ScratchJr.
"Programs
like BootUp help further stimulate a student's appetite in STEM while
challenging their mind to engage in computer science concepts,"
said Oswaldo Alvarenga, assistant superintendent of STEM for Dallas
ISD, in a statement.
"The
Dallas Independent School District is one of the largest in the
country and presently in their third year of a district-wide
'Computer Science for Elementary' initiative," added Clark
Merkley, executive director of BootUp. "The Amazon Future
Engineer sponsorship is in perfect alignment with their goals of
providing underserved and underrepresented students with a solid
technology foundation, and growing their pipeline of [CS] students
into the district's high school curriculum."
The
agreement with Dallas ISD is part of a $50 million investment Amazon
is making to increase access to computer science and STEM education
in schools across the country. Texas by itself has at least 180 high
schools participating in the Amazon Future Engineer program.
Elementary
school leaders who are interested in applying for CS education
sponsorships can apply through
the BootUp website.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.