Time to make CS part of Core Curriculum

This is the title of an article published in the Houston Chronicle by Paula Harris and Ruthe Farmer.

… Public school districts, HISD included, are not doing enough to prepare students or encourage them to pursue high tech careers. This has to change… We need to start working with students at a young age to spark their interest in technology and computer science. Our children should not just know how to use apps and video games, they should know how to create apps and video games… We must elevate computer science classes to be part of our core curriculum.

Please make a pledge to impact change as part of CS Education Week.

Celebrating CS Education Week
Ms. Creek’s 2nd grade creating a robotic line dance at Piney Point in HISD

The students I taught to program a line dance at Piney Point ES in Houston ISD and Bendwood in Spring Branch ISD now want to program the NAO to dance, design video games, and write their own mobile apps. Their teachers must maintain that spark, that passion to learn to program.

While young girls and boys use technology every day to communicate, play video games, download and listen to music, their interest in majoring in STEM has steadily declined over the past decade. Fewer students are enrolling in computer science and graduating with computer science degrees. If this trend continues, the technology industry will only be able to fill half its available jobs with candidates with computer science bachelor’s degrees from U.S. universities, according to the National Center for Women in Technology.

-Michele Kang CEO Cognosante, Leaders in STEM

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