Official Google Australia Blog: Making computer science accessible: apply now for 2012 CS4HS Grants

Australia Blog

News and notes from Google Down Under

Making computer science accessible: apply now for 2012 CS4HS Grants

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Working with micro-controllers at UQ’s worskhop.

The need for computer science professionals is increasing faster than universities are able to graduate CS students -- not just in Australia and New Zealand, but around the world. That’s why Google has worked with universities around the world to develop the CS4HS program: Computer Science for High School.

CS4HS is an initiative sponsored by Google to promote Computer Science and Computational Thinking in high school and middle school curriculum. The program takes a “train the trainer” approach. Universities develop 2-3 day workshops for teachers that provide training, tips, and actual classroom materials to help them teach programming and computing in their schools and turn their students into computational thinkers and creators.

This summer five CS4HS workshops were held in Australia and New Zealand, at University of Melbourne, University of Canterbury, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Queensland, and University of Adelaide. University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney will hold theirs in the coming weeks. Over 200 teachers have:

learned about programming software directly from developers, full-time CS faculty, and Google engineers;
participated in hands-on workshops ranging from robotics programming to mobile app development with App Inventor;
attended informational talks by industry leaders; and
discussed new and emerging CS curricula at the high school and middle school level.

CS4HS participants and tutors at the University of Queensland’s workshop.

This sort of training is especially helpful for the surprising number of teachers in Australia and New Zealand who are devoting their own free time to offering computer science classes as a club or an extra course outside of the school’s primary curriculum.

Professor Paul Strooper, Head of the School of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland, said, “The CS4HS program was a huge success for UQ since the funding enabled us to develop three new hands-on computer science workshops for high schools which we are hoping to deliver to groups of students throughout the year. We used part of the funding to offer travel grants which enabled 15 teachers from all over Queensland and as far as Sydney to attend the CS4HS Workshop. Participating teachers from the Brisbane area have already started contacting us to organise workshops for their students at UQ and we are planning to visit the teachers from Mackay later in the year to run workshops for their students.”

From now until 3rd March 2012, CS4HS is accepting applications for 2012 grants; if you’re affiliated with a college or university in Australia or New Zealand, we’d love to hear from you. If you’re not affiliated with a college or university you can still encourage your local university, community college or technical school to apply for a grant. After applications close, we’ll post the workshop websites of participating schools on cs4hs.com for professors looking for ideas and for teachers interested in learning more about what’s being offered.
Posted by Sally-Ann Williams, Program Manager Engineering, Google Australia

Google

Labels: computer science , students

Labels

20%
3D
AdSense
AdWords
AdWords Express
Agencies
agencies adwords TV
AI
Analytics
android
announcements
antarctica
App Marketplace
apps
ARIA
art
Australia
Australian IT
big data
Big Query
blogging
blogs
books
broadband
business
calendar
campaign management
careers
CeBIT
chrome
Chromebox
Chromecast
climate
cloud computing
community
competition
computer science
conversion tracking
cooking
creativity
creators
culture
currents
cyber safety
cycling
dashboard
Developer Day
developers
devices
digital advertising
digital economy
Display
display ads
Doodles
drive
earphones
ebooks
education
Election
energy
enhanced campaigns
Enterprise
entertainment
entrepreneurship
environment
environmental insights explorer
Equatorgate
Fairfax
film
filtering
G'day Google
gardening
Getting Aussie Business Online
Gmail
gone google
gonegoogle
google
Google App Engine
Google Apps
Google Apps for Business
Google Apps for Education
Google Art Project
Google Arts & Culture
Google Assistant
Google Australia
Google Chrome
Google Code
Google docs
Google Drive
Google Earth
Google in Australia
google maps
Google Places
google play
Google Search
Google Serve
Google Sites
Google Talk
Google Trends
Google+
Googlers and culture
government
green
Guest blogger
guest speakers
Hangouts
hardware
HR
iGoogle
information
innovation
insights
internet
internet industry
IT
Julia Gillard
language
learning
life
local
Made By Google
maps
measurement
media industry
mental health
mobile
Moderator
movies
music
navigation
NBN
Nest
netball
new features
news
NGEN
non-profit
online advertising
online safety
open government
open source
Partnerships
phone
photography
picasa
Pixel
Pixel Buds
play
play points
Policy
politics
prime minister
privacy
prizes
Product
PSI
publishers
puppies
real estate
Reception
recruitment
removals
rentals
reporting
research
Running
Safety
scholarships
schools
science
search
search ads
Security
shopping
sitelinks
sketchup
small business
smartphones
SMB
software
street view
student programs
students
Stupid Google employee tricks
Summer of Code
Support
Support Act
survey
sustainability
sydney
symphony
tablet
technology
Themes
tips
training
transit
translate
transparency
transport
Universities
vault
videos
voicesearch
Wave
wellbeing
with me
women
workplace culture
YouTube
YouTube Kids
YouTube Live
YouTube Music
YouTube Originals
zeitgeiest

Feed

Media contacts

If you are a member of the press, please email our communications team at:
press-australia-nz@google.com

For all other enquiries, please visit our Help Centre.

Google
Privacy
Terms

Australia Blog

Making computer science accessible: apply now for 2012 CS4HS Grants

Labels

Archive

Feed

Media contacts