Education Excellence

Kristina chats with Erin Cawley, program manager at Carnegie Mellon’s CS Academy, which has developed a novel, world-class, online, interactive high school computer science curriculum free for all to use. The program is designed to provide the resources necessary to empower teachers in instruction on computer sciences. CS Academy wants to instill a passion in students for computer science, rather than simply consuming new technology, Cawley says. Students are programming in Python and instruction is targeted toward ninth grades who have already taken Algebra 1, but the CS Academy is building out additional courses as well. There are several levels of instruction available from CS Academy that educators and students can take advantage by simply signing up for an account, with no other strings attached (it’s free). There also is professional development training and a support tab on the website available for teachers to get quick answers to their questions, she adds. This episode was sponsored by TESOL, www.tes