Project Overview

The NSF (ITEST) supported- Bridging Math & Media Literacy (BMM) project will guide high school students through a mathematics-based, programming experience that prepared the high school students to teach mathematics and programming to middle school students. Using a "drag and drop" programming language, the participants will explore mathematical concepts. Products of the project will include two modules, the first using video games based on existing mathematics games and the second using simulations to explore social issues. The goals of the project are (1) to develop computational literacy as well as mathematical literacy and (2) encourage students to pursue STEM careers.

Year 1 - Activities to Date

BMM Curriculum

Across the fall of 2010, in collaboration with the YPP and TERC-based Primary investigators, a group of 4 consultants, comprised of a Professor of Computer Science, a Graduate Student at the MIT Media Lab, an MIT undergraduate students, and a Secondary Computer Science/Mathematics teacher from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, developed a 5 month pilot curriculum utilzing the MIT-developed SCRATCH programming language.


SCRATCH programming concepts- click for more

BMM will also be utilizing the Agent Sheets programming language across the course of the intial 3-year pilot.  Similar to SCRATCH, Agent Sheets is also another object oriented programming language, with the added capacity for more intensive mathematical modeling and simulations. The Agent Sheets training component will be lead by co-NSF grantee and Agent Sheets founder, Alex Reopenning and his staff at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

Training and Outreach Work

SCRATCH:  Starting in January, 10 Boston and Cambridge high school students and 15 high school students from the El Dorado, IL YPP site, participated in a 6 week SCRATCH training program.

AGENT SHEETS: Starting in July, ten Jackson, MS and 10 Chicago high school students will be trained in the Agent Sheets programming language by a local instructor.

Sample Student Outcomes (to date)

SCRATCH Student Gallery - A sampling of projects created during the 2011 Winter HS Scratch Training

Interview Excerpts...