SBIR Phase II: A Co-creation, Cross-curricular, Standard Aligned Computer Science, Engineering, and Cybersecurity Education Technology Platform

This SBIR Phase II project aims to transform the lives and future economic opportunities of young people and their communities through democratized access to cross-curricular computer science, engineering, and cybersecurity education. Daily life, economies, innovation, and national security all depend on having a strong and skilled STEM workforce. For this workforce to exist, our schools must provide the necessary education and experience to prepare students for such careers. Unfortunately, a vast majority of K-12 educators today are not equipped with the resources to do so successfully. The importance of solving this problem cannot be overstated; developing a plentitude of competent STEM professionals is critical to ensure economic and security stability. These project goals are aligned with NSF?s mission to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense. The resulting technology innovation is of potential service to more than 50 million primary and secondary school students and 3.5 million educators nationally, with an ability to impact their course of study, improve STEM outcomes, increase hands-on project-based experience, and improve future economic opportunities. This technology innovation emerges at the intersection of cloud-based software technology, real-time collaboration tools, and learning management systems. This reimagined technology tool easily connects, attracts, and fosters delivery of cross-curricular, educational computing literacy resources aligned with national and state educational standards. The project aims to empower and support educators and students in tackling the many new opportunities and growing number of resources in computer science (CS) and engineering education at home, in classrooms, and in community centers. As the CS education landscape evolves with new and exciting technical curriculum, this innovation analyzes the willingness of educators to create or adopt new computer science education, the effectiveness of real-time collaboration tools on CS education outcomes, and measures student awareness and feelings about computer science and engineering disciplines. This technology innovation promotes customer participation and a unique ability to provide support at the ground level in real-time. There are solutions that provide massive online CS courses and curricula; however, none targeting K-12 classrooms or educators which support and integrate cross-curricular computer science, engineering, and cybersecurity education. Offering cloud-based, synchronous technology tools this technology enables real-time, expert mentoring and pair-programming in a K12 virtual learning environment on a massive scale. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.