ATLAS Assistant Professor Ben Shapiro is a collaborator on two for the 2017-18 school year, enabling work to move ahead on a pair of initiatives that connect research, teaching and creative work with education in Colorado public schools.
Building Capacity for Youth Organizing Through Data Use is a collaboration between ATLAS, the Research Hub (PI Ben Kirshner, School of Education) and Padres y Jóvenes Unidos (PJU), an organization led by people of color who work for educational equity, racial justice, immigrant rights and quality healthcare. The project includes building a mobile-friendly, web-based data collection and analysis platform that helps PJU teen youth activists conduct research in their schools and communities. A group of ²ÊÃñ±¦µä computer science students will collaborate with PJU youth on the design and development of the tools.
adds a new component to the highly successful , established by the School of Education in 2010 and now headed by Associate Professor Susan Jurow. The new component teaches computer science skills to the two groups EPIC brings together: Latino 3rd, 4th and 5th grade elementary school students and undergraduates in ²ÊÃñ±¦µä’s teacher education program. Neither group is expected to have much prior experience working with computational technology, the age discrepancy creates an interesting dynamic as pairs of students, elementary and college, tackle creative computing projects together. In addition to Shapiro and Jurow, two PhD students are collaborating on the project: Kelsey Tayne (School of Education) and Max Hollingsworth (Computer Science).
Each award is for $24,000. ²ÊÃñ±¦µä funded for the 2017-2018 academic year, totalling $460,000.