©2014 photo provided by whitehouse.gov

President Obama recently announced his three-year initiative to empower American students with the computer science skills they need to succeed in a digital economy. This plan, called “Computer Science for All”,  outlines $4 billion in funding to provide schools and educators across the country with the resources they need to teach computer science. This includes training teachers, equipping classrooms and developing new class curriculum to include programming and computational thinking.

In support of this push towards cross-curricular STEM learning, companies like fischertechnik have been creating easily integrated classroom solutions focused on encouraging computational thinking.

The White House’s chief technology adviser, Megan Smith, stated, “It’s not just working with computers, but developing the computational thinking, and analytical coding skills.” Closing the skills gap that many new employees face will require support from both public and private sectors.

The Challenge: Making Computer Science Accessible

Computer science is acknowledged as a “new basic skill” necessary for an evolving economy and social growth. Currently, only a quarter of primary and secondary schools in the United States offer some kind of computer programming classes. Also, there are only 28 states that allow computer science courses to count towards high school graduation.

If approved, the “Computer Science for All” initiative will focus on funneling funds into building computer science courses – some starting as early as elementary school. Computer science is an essential filed of STEM learning that allows students to engage in real-world applications of math, science and engineering principles. The biggest challenge many academic institutions face is incorporating this technology into their classrooms.

The funds from this program would give states and districts the resources to train existing and new teachers and expand access to learning materials. It is important that the computer science solutions these schools adopt are both versatile and cost-effective. This is where fischertechnik Education excels.

STEM solutions from fischertechnik support students from elementary school to higher education and beyond. These programs recognize the importance of computer science and build on its use throughout their classroom construction sets. Check out some of the essential programming and coding analytic skills fischertechnik Education promotes.

fischertechnik Education Furthers Computational Thinking

fischertechnik has been creating construction sets that inspire STEM learning since its establishment in 1965. The company expanded its reach and focused on education with the fischertechnik Education range of products. The purpose of these construction sets is to establish meaningful STEM education in classrooms by integrating new concepts into lesson plans and promote a hands-on learning experience.

A solid STEM foundation is often grounded in an understanding of computer science. That’s why fischertechnik Education supports “Computer Science for All” with two specifically developed solutions – the Introduction to STEM II set and the STEM Engineering set.

fischertechnik Introduction to STEM II
This set was developed to include a standards-based curriculum that focused on an introduction to programming and robotics. Students are encouraged to use the ROBO Pro Light software to explore simple programming activities and learn how to control their robotics. Inspire analytical skills and essential computational logic in early learning environments – particularly elementary classrooms.

fischertechnik STEM Engineering
Empower your students to design and construct their own automated systems. Again, this set is based heavily in computer science with a core emphasis on programming and automation. Containing over 30 different activities, it focuses on using ROBO Pro programming to control and automate everyday processes. Get an in depth look at how coding works and strengthen computer science skills with STEM Engineering.

Learn More: Computer Science in the Classroom

fischertechnik has been a successful addition to classrooms around the world for years. These sets offer students an interactive, cross-curricular learning experience that teaches concepts in terms of real-world applications. fischertechnik Education is dedicated to creating classroom solutions that establish a lifelong interest in computer science and the principles of STEM.