UNH Today

Even as their students were cleaning out their lockers and crossing the last few days of school off their calendars, a group of Manchester-area educators and administrators were signing themselves up for a little extra credit: a two-day professional development program designed to give them coding experience that they can integrate into their curricula. Held at UNH Manchester on June 14 and 15, TeachCode Academy was a pilot program aimed at supporting the statewide initiative to implement computer science education across the K-12 curriculum. The program was developed through a collaborative partnership between Manchester internet leader Dyn, MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program, the Governor’s Task Force on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education, STEAM Ahead NH and the Manchester school district.

“Education needs to meet kids where they are,” says Bob Baines, Dyn community relations director and director of STEAM Ahead NH. “The landscape is changing, so we need to create learning environments that are conducive to today’s technology-
rich, connected culture.” To that end, educators learned four coding tools to bring to their classrooms: App Inventor, Gameblox, StarLogo and TaleBlazer. Each workshop was facilitated by MIT Scheller staff, with MIT students on hand as technical experts to assist in the learning process. Manchester West High School principal Chris Motika notes that the work was designed to be applicable across disciplines. From his school alone, the two-day workshop included teachers from the areas of special education, physical education, math, English, social studies, music, science and technology. 

Mihaela Sabin, associate professor of computer science and director of the Manchester-based UNH STEM Discovery Lab, says teachers are perpetual learners, so building a network of growth and learning among teachers is central to this program’s mission. “There is this fear of new technologies because they change so quickly, and you need time to become familiar with them,” Sabin says. “Teachers and students need to be open to explore, tinker and share what works so we can adopt best practices.”

Baines says TechCode Academy is just the start of statewide efforts to enhance project-based, hands-on learning. “This is the beginning of bringing about a change in education that we fundamentally all agree needs to occur. The economic vitality of this region and our state starts with education, what we’re doing in our schools to prepare students with the skills to advance into employees of each sector of our community.” ″

Originally published in UNH Magazine Fall 2016 Issue