Erdogan Kaya, Assistant Professor, Secondary Education, received funding from the National Science Foundation for a project in which he aims to develop integrated computer science (CS) curricula.
In this collaborative project, faculty from Mason, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Weber State University, and the University of South Carolina Upstate will specifically design the integrated CS curricula using affordances of educational robotics for students in grades 3-5 in linguistically diverse classrooms.
Via this project, Kaya and his team aim to investigate the impact of integrated curricula on students in grades 3-5 with regard to English language proficiency, science, math, and computer science achievement, and attitudes toward STEM and computing.
"In our diverse classrooms, a variety of languages are spoken, and the number of bilingual and multilingual students keeps growing. As of now, we are adding another language to our classrooms: programming. Our belief is that computer science is the new literacy and that all students should learn computer science, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, or zip code. Through this NSF CSforAll grant, our team will develop an ELL-friendly elementary computer science curriculum that utilizes the affordances of physical computing," Kaya said.
Kaya received $119,625 from NSF for this project. Funding began in September 2021 and will end in late August 2024.
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