Groups in Arizona were recently awarded an NSF grant to establish the Arizona K-8 Consortium Hub, a network of Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships (RPPs) that will work to integrate computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) into rural and tribal K-8 education. The Hub will work with practitioners and researchers to establish five regional RPPs across Arizona. The Hub's primary role will be to support regional RPPs logistically (partnership building, grant writing) as well as by developing and implementing an integrated Professional Development (PD) and Professional Learning Community (PLC) platform that builds local capacity. Click here for more information about the grant.
Additional background on the project: The Arizona K-8 Consortium leverages the Arizona STEM Ecosystem hubs and RAIN collaboration to empower rural educators and leaders through research-practitioner partnerships. These partnerships’ work will focus on integrating computer science and computational thinking (CS/CT) into rural and tribal K-8 education in Northeastern, Northwestern, Central, Southern, and Eastern Arizona. The Consortium Hub, housed at SciTech Institute, and its members, the Arizona Practitioner-Researcher Educational Partnership (AZ PREP) Office in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University; CS/CT experts; and BootUp Professional Development (BootUp PD), will build local capacity by supporting regional partnerships, professional development and a professional learning community.