September 20, 2023
By MEALAND RAGLAND-HUDGINS
Rutherford County Schools
Thurman Francis Arts Academy students are learning how digital citizenship, coding and artificial intelligence play a role in their lives.
The K-8 magnet school offers a devoted computer science curriculum for students grades 6-8 every nine weeks, said Dr. Teresa Wise, who teaches computer science and broadcasting classes.
“Here, students can choose their electives, so they can come back and take my class as many times as they want, but they can’t (repeat projects). They can really start to dig into career paths,” said Wise.
Students select research projects on Monday and have one week to complete them. They might code robots to complete a certain task, use Minecraft Education to study biodiversity or solve a problem using computer-aided design, Wise explained.
“Instead of doing a standard PowerPoint presentation, they might do screen recordings and embed those into a slide. (PowerPoint) looks simple but there is a lot of technology involved,” she added, noting one student used artificial intelligence to have the voice of Donald Trump narrate a presentation.
Projects are saved in an online portfolio so students can revisit their work over the course of the grading period.
By teaching grades K-8, Wise is able to see students’ computer skills progress as they get older.
“In kindergarten and first grade, they are so used to tablets. They want to touch the screen to scroll. They don’t know how to search because they’re used to going into an app,” she said, adding that by fourth grade, digital literacy becomes even more important.
“They learn that they cannot believe anything on the internet. We talk about what fake news is and how to determine what websites are reliable sources,” Wise said. “They’ll say ‘Google said it,’ not realizing Google is a search engine. By the time they hit sixth grade, they’re proficient in research.”
Beginning in the fall of 2024, the state of Tennessee will require grade-specific computer science courses based on grade level.
- Elementary: Schools must provide students with a grade-appropriate computer science education embedded into existing instructional programs.
- Middle: Students must receive a dedicated computer science course for at least one grading period during their middle school career.
- High: All schools must provide at least one course credit of computer science education to students pursuing a high school diploma. The state Board of Education adopted a policy earlier this year allowing computer science to count as a fourth year of math or a third year of science.
According to the Tennessee Department of Education, 48 percent of Tennessee high school students who took the ACT showed interest in pursuing a career in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – but just 21 percent of met STEM benchmarks in 2020 and 2021.
“Although not every Tennessee student will enter a STEM field, all students will benefit from learning computer science concepts and practices allowing them to better understanding the world around them, improve their logical reasoning and problem-solving skills, and increase their creativity and collaboration,” according to TDOE.
Teachers who want to add the computer science endorsement pathway to their teaching license can do so at no charge. Online and open to all teachers, the required course takes about four months to complete, Wise said.