NCWIT Newsletter, CSEdWeek — December 2010

December 6, 2010

Computing underlies nearly all scientific innovation today and drives virtually every sector of the U.S. and global economy. However, the majority of our schools are not providing students with computational thinking abilities and strong technical skills required for the growing IT job market. What can you do? Raise awareness by celebrating Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) — a week-long series of events, sponsored activities, messaging, and public pledges to participate.

About CSEdWeek
With leadership from Congressman Vernon Ehlers and Congressman Jared Polis, the U.S. House of Representatives endorsed December 5 to 11, 2010 — the week of Grace Hopper’s birthday (December 9, 1906) — as CSEdWeek to recognize the critical role of computing in today’s society and the imperative to bolster computer science education at all levels. Learn more about CSEdWeek at www.csedweek.org.

Take the CSEdWeek pledge
Over 1,000 people already have pledged their support for CSEdWeek through their participation in events, activities, and plans to inform and educate others. Show your support by registering here and share how you plan to celebrate.

Find an event
See all of the latest activities or search for events within a 200-mile radius of your zip code.

Connect online
Join the conversation on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CSEdWeek or spread the word on Twitter using #CSEdWeek.

Get customized resources
Visit www.csedweek.org/resources for a complete library of facts, reports, posters, presentations, videos, contests, and more based on your needs.

Available NCWIT resources include:

America’s Got Talent but Not Enough Is Going into Computer Science describes the rationale for and a description of CS Principles, a new Advanced Placement computing course in development by NSF and the College Board, designed to be engaging, inspiring and rigorous.
By the Numbers offers the most compelling statistics on women’s participation in IT, on a single page.
Computer Science-in-a-Box: Unplug Your Curriculum introduces fundamental building blocks of computer science — without using computers.
Gotta Have IT is an all-in-one computing resource kit designed with K-12 educators’ needs in mind and is especially inclusive of girls.
Moving Beyond Computer Literacy: Why Schools Should Teach Computer Science, co-branded with the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) andthe Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), provides information about the value of computer science curriculum for students, educators, local and national economies as well as global society.
Why Should Young Women Consider a Career in Information Technology? gives adults talking points and additional resources for a conversation with young people about what the IT career has to offer and how to prepare for it.

CSEdWeek is a collaborative effort of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), National Science Foundation (NSF), Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT), WGBH, Computing Research Association (CRA), Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology (ABI), Microsoft, Google, SAS, Intel, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

CSEdWeek is an activity of Computing in the Core (CinC), a non-partisan advocacy coalition of associations, corporations, scientific societies, and other non-profits that strive to elevate computer science education to a core academic subject in K-12 education.

NCWIT supports CSEdWeek Chair Debra J. Richardson, Founding Dean of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Copyright @ 2010. National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
University of Colorado, Campus Box 322 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0322
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