AIR@NE program coming to Central Nebraska

Twenty-eight teachers will be chosen for the second year of CSForAll: Adapt, Implement, and Research at Nebraska (AIR@NE), an NSF-funded grant that examines the adaptation and implementation of a validated K-8 Computer Science curriculum in diverse school districts. The grant expands the Research-Practitioner Partnership between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) to other districts across Nebraska. The primary goal is to study how districts facing different contextual challenges, including rural schools, majority-minority schools, and Native American reservation schools, adapt the curriculum to fit local needs and strengths to broaden participation in computer science.

The application for Cohort 2 in Grand Island is now open. Completed applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis through January 2020. Please forward this notice to your K-8 computer science colleagues.

COHORTS AND BENEFITS

This second cohort will take courses in Grand Island in the summer of 2020 and have academic-year follow-up work in 2020-2021. (Cohort 3 will meet in Omaha starting in summer 2021, with academic-year follow-up in 2021-2022.) There are no travel funds available for commuting to courses, so teachers from the Omaha area will want to wait and apply for a 2021 cohort.

What you will receive if selected:
*Tuition and fees for two graduate courses (except for the $50 graduate application fee) in Summer 2020: Introduction to Computer Science I for Teachers (CSCE 805T, June 8-12 and June 15-19, mornings) and CS Pedagogy (TEAC 851L, June 8-12 and June 15-19, afternoons); optional: tuition and fees for one graduate course the following summer
*For elementary teachers: $1,500 worth of computer science hardware and software (i.e. iPads, robotics)
*For middle school teachers: $1,500 worth of computer science hardware and software (i.e. iPads, robotics)
*Funding to travel to one conference (e.g., NETA or CSTA)
*During academic year, attend five Saturday meetings and earn $100 per meeting
*Participation in a statewide community of K-8 computer science teachers, providing mutual support for teaching and learning computer science.

ELIGIBILITY AND APPLICATION

You must:
• be a K-8 Nebraska teacher
• teach at least one computer science class to students at least once per week
• agree to be part of the research project (agree to observations, completion of questionnaires and surveys, and interviews and collect student data)
• have your principal/district support your teaching of computer science and participation in this grant

See the website for information on the application: http://go.unl.edu/airne

For more about personnel on this grant, see this UNL Research story (https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/husker-team-aims-to-strengthen-nebraska-s-k-8-computer-science-curriculum/).