4-H: Computer Science Professional Development Toolkit

The Computer Science Professional Development (CSPD) toolkit supports CS departments and faculty partnering with out-of-school time (OST) programs such as afterschool programs, summer camps, museums and science centers, youth development organizations or clubs, or community organizations to broaden participation in computing. The toolkit has been developed to increase the capacity of postsecondary institutions and other organizations to BPC by engaging youth is OST programs in plugged and unplugged CS activities. Toolkit resources develop the confidence and competence of those leading CS activities. The CSPD trains CS students, professionals or faculty to use best practices in OST learning to engage young people in computer science and computational thinking.  Topics addressed include preparing yourself to work with children, modeling CS practices, making CS connections to careers, developing a CS identity, introducing computational thinking, and teaching decomposition (CT).

The toolkit was developed and piloted by National 4-H Council, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Click2SciencePD.  It can be found online at http://www.click2sciencepd.org/computer-science-toolkit

Department Chairs or PIs can use the toolkit to prepare staff, students or faculty to work with K-12 students in their BPC efforts. The resources are free online and customized training is also available for a wide range of budgets.