Our Impact

An Outsized Impact on Computer Science Teaching and Learning

In 2015, Carol Fletcher, Director of Expanding Pathways in Computing at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of University of Texas, took part in 100Kin10’s Fellowship program, which was designed to seed innovations in computer science and engineering education. As a result of this experience, she conceptualized and received funding for WeTeach_CS, which trains K-12 educators to improve access to high-quality computer science experiences for a broad and diverse range of students. Between 2015 and 2018, WeTeach_CS helped more than 500 in-service teachers in Texas earn a computer science certification – more than every university pre-service program in the nation combined.

Nikki Hendriks is a former school librarian who became a computer science teacher through WeTeach_CS. “After being a librarian for so long, it really engaged my brain, and it brought in a lot of the math concepts that I hadn't used in years. It was just so challenging and exciting to me.”

By supporting the development and growth of Fletcher’s initiative to increase the number of trained and certified CS teachers, Bellwether Education Partners concluded that “100Kin10 has had an outsized impact on computer science teaching and learning.”

Innovative Assessments Make Space for Stimulating Instruction

Lauren Jones-Kaplan, Director of STEM and Innovation at DSST Public Schools in Denver, worked on a 100Kin10 Project Team with scientists from Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado-Boulder to improve the quality of experiential learning and performance-based assessments in science. She shared that the generative nature of partnerships between STEM experts and K-12 teachers — combining expertise in STEM practice and pedagogy — increased student access to high-quality curricula and rigorous, engaging instruction. “I think what we've seen from [our work with the Project Team] is more authentic engagement, students understanding and figuring something out versus being passive learners and just taking in information. Even if a student is not going to ever study or pursue anything in STEM after their K-12 experience, they have a framework and a toolkit for how to solve problems. We definitely could use more of that kind of thinking in society.”

Connecting Classrooms to Real-World STEM

The STEM Teacher and Researcher (STAR) Program at California Polytechnic State University provides aspiring teachers with opportunities to do authentic research while helping them translate their research experience into classroom practice. (Learn more about how 100Kin10 impacted the STAR program.) These experiences continue to influence teachers and their instructional approach once they enter the classroom.

Lesley Anderson, Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, Library of Congress who also serves on 100Kin10’s Teacher Forum, described how the STAR program helped shape her identity as a teacher researcher as well as her ability to share knowledge with her students: “During the third summer of STAR, I worked at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego on a project that involved learning how to work in a molecular ecology lab to extract RNA from sea turtle blood to compile a library to be used in genomic sequencing. Because of my connection at the NOAA lab site, I was able to establish a partnership between my school and the local university to allow my students to do authentic research in a real laboratory setting. This is especially significant for my students; we are in a low-income community and don’t have the funding to support that hands-on lab experience in the classroom.”