To help districts meet the legislative requirements of new Computer Science legislation, the Mississippi Department of Education and the Center for Cyber Education at Mississippi State University have partnered to provide training opportunity called the Summer Computer Science Institute set for June 6-10.
The 2021 computer science legislation requires 50% of all elementary schools within a district to offer at least one hour per week of computer science instruction to K-5 students by the 2022-2023 school year. The following year (SY 2023-2024) 100% of the elementary schools in the district will be required to offer at least one hour per week of computer science instruction to all K-5 students.
The Computer Science legislation can be found here: http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2021/html/HB/0600-0699/HB0633SG.htm
Please note, according to Section 3 of the legislation, computer science instruction can be offered as a stand-alone implementation or embedded in other subjects and should be provided by licensed teachers. The goal of K-5 computer science instruction is to create and understand technology rather than simply using technology. Therefore, computer-based intervention programs do not meet the intent of the legislation.
Details of the training opportunity are below:
Summer Computer Science Institute: June 6-10, 2022
Each district may send six teachers (one per grade level K-5) to a two- day Computer Science Institute. Each of the participants will be provided the necessary resources and information to replicate the professional development content to their district/school colleagues.
Specific training content includes:
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- One full day of training using the free Code.org platform
- Access to an integration guide for each grade level, K-5, with 40 lessons per grade which integrate computer science into reading, math, science, and social studies
- Half day of training on additional resources such as robotics and other coding platforms
- Half day of train-the-trainer sessions to help them bring this material back to all other elementary teachers in the district
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Workshop locations: Tupelo (June 6-7), Cleveland (June 7-8), Brandon (June 8-9), Gulfport (June 9-10)
In preparation for the Summer Computer Science Institute, webinars will provide administrators with additional information on the legislation, discuss the necessity of each district participating in the training, the critical importance of choosing the right people to send to the training and the need to plan for training within the district during the summer of 2022.
Click one of the links below to register:
Please register for a webinar by Friday, Jan. 21. For questions prior to the webinar, contact Shelly Hollis at shelly.hollis@cce.msstate.edu.