Computer science (CS) is more available in classrooms across New Zealand than ever, thanks to the Digital Technologies curriculum, and so equipping teachers with the everything they need to teach CS and computational thinking has never been more important.
“A lot of students come out of school able to push the right buttons, but don’t know how to approach real-world problem solving. We need to teach students how to tackle problems that seem unsolvable,” says Leanne Cameron, CS4HS grant recipient.
It also helps them prepare for the careers of the future that will certainly involve digital skills and combining computer science with other disciplines like health, science, agriculture, art and more to solve complex challenges and design innovation solutions for the world.
Other CS4HS recipients have delivered hands on practical workshops to teachers all around New Zealand to equip them with both the knowledge and the skills to engage and excite students in the opportunities that computer science can lead to. CORE Education, a 2016 CS4HS recipient, developed an online introductory series of webinars to give teachers the resources and confidence to teach the foundation concepts of CS with year 7-10 students.
Applications are now open for our 2016 CS4HS program in Australia and New Zealand, and will remain open until 19 March 2016.
If you want to know where computer science can take today’s students, check out Careers with Code. In the future, young Australians will use computer science to do great things, and it will all start with a great teacher with a passion for the topic.