Inspiration Through Education

Mobilizing for Innovative Computer Science Teaching and Learning is a $12.5M National Science Foundation math/science partnership funded for 2010-2015. UCLA’s Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), headed up by Debra Estrin, is partnered with UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (Center X), the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA).

Mobilize builds upon a high school student’s enchantment, fascination, and engagement with mobile technology. At the heart of this project is the CENS Participatory Sensing System—an innovative method of data collection and analysis in which individuals use mobile phones to systematically collect and interpret data about issues important to them and their communities.  The project will develop a hands-on, query-based curriculum along with professional development for teachers in computer science, mathematics, and science high school classes.  Mobilize brings together computational thinking with our students’ sense of civic involvement in their own communities.

The project is especially committed to ensuring access to innovative instruction in the Los Angeles Unified School District—especially those schools with high numbers of African American and Latino students. In LAUSD, interdisciplinary teams of students and teachers in computer science, mathematics, life and physical science, as well as social science, will participate in this project. As computer science is now an integral part of innovation across all fields, our goal is to strengthen computer science instruction throughout our educational system.

We are sitting at the crux of critical educational issues facing our country: How can we foster innovation and inventiveness, and how do we guarantee quality and rigorous education for all students?  What we learn about increasing opportunities for query-based, rigorous learning of computer science and about innovative professional development for teachers, especially in large urban school districts, will be critically important for the entire country across multiple disciplines, communities, and institutions.