EIU Rural School Initiative

Pathways to the Future: Planning the Southeastern Illinois P-16+ Computational Thinking Network

Suzie Bosler's 3rd grade classroom is one of six pilot classrooms selected to integrate a 7-10 week Computational Thinking program of  instruction in her classroom. This is part of the Southeastern Illinois P-16+ Computational Thinking Network which is funded by the Illinois Innovation Network.

Pilot Classrooms Grant

The Southeastern Illinois P-16+ Computational Thinking Network accepted applications to fund six pilot projects. The grant awarded $4000 to six teachers. Each teacher proposed their own 7 to10 week program. The funds purchased supplies, equipment, and training needed. Items purchased will stay with the school.

The expectations are to integrate short Computer Science/STEAM activities into classes or a club. The final project will include:

• Short lessons involving problem solving and Computer Science activities
• Lessons integrating either Drones, Robots, or Circuits 
• The hands-on project will utilize skills from the coding activities to automate activities
• Finally, the teacher and students hosted some type of sharing such as a school extravaganza for other teachers, a family night, or a community presentation

During the grant, period teachers will collect lots of photos and posts. At the conclusion, a final one-page report was submitted summarizing the classroom experiences.

The purpose of this group is to develop a regional network of educators and stakeholders to support computational thinking and the new CS standards across the region. We also want to provide opportunities for students of all ages to visit locations that use these standards in the workplace.

The Illinois Innovation Network provided preliminary funding to support the planning and network development as part of their seed grants.  

Communication: Facebook Page

Initial Leadership Teams 

• James Munger (Lakeland College)  
• Ikemefuna Nwosu (Lakeland College)   
• George Reese (MSTE Center @ UIUC)    
• Brian Reid (Rural School Initiative @ EIU)  
• Terence Sullivan (Rural School Initiative @ EIU)  

Tasks  

• Develop P-16 planning team representative of the area and organize discussions across the region   
• Develop needs assessment and evaluation for educators and stakeholders  
• Plan and implement general PD and site visits  
• Develop workgroups –  
• Elementary 
• Secondary 
• Post-secondary/workforce development 
• Education & Business Partnerships 
• Develop resource database with online resources (Prototype site)   
• Summer 2022- focused PD for each group  
• Fall 2022 – 1-2 pilot groups in each workgroup.    

If you have any questions, please contact Brian Reid (bdreid2@eiu.edu).