Early Intervention in High School to Increase College Enrollment in Computer Science and Science

In general, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects are competing for enrollment at universities with an ever-growing range of options, to the detriment of them. The Australian Institute of Mathematical Sciences revealed that basic mathematics was gaining popularity among secondary school students at the expense of intermediate or advanced studies. This has resulted in fewer universities offering advanced math courses and consequently fewer math graduates. Therefore, educators continually look for innovative ways to attract students to college STEM courses.

First, an examination of the causes of low interest in college STEM programs revealed the following: An October 2011 report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) reported that American science graduates viewed traditional scientific careers as “too socially isolated”. ” In addition, a liberal arts or business education was often seen as more flexible in a rapidly changing job market. High school students had a perception that computer science and information technology majors were outsourced and not a level major. They had the belief that the only IT careers available were “back-room” jobs, such as data entry.The challenge, says Professor Ian Chubb, head of Australia’s Office of the Chief Scientist, in his report Health of Australian Science (May 2012), is to make STEM subjects more attractive to students.He points out that secondary students study mathematics and science, but not engineering and technology.Therefore, secondary students are not receiving a “taste” for STEM subjects in a practical and applied context.

To address this situation, on an experimental basis, secondary schools in Australia are running a pilot program in computing and technology. In the South Australian state of Victoria, secondary schools will test the country’s first computer science and technology subjects in Year 12, the final year of secondary school. The premise is that the pilot program will provide students with a taste for the subject, applied to real situations, in order to examine whether it produces greater interest and enrollment in related subjects at the university level. The pilot is seen as a form of early intervention.

Twelve high schools will participate in the pilot program. Therefore, up to 120 secondary school students will undertake the computer program developed by computing and engineering academics at the University of Melbourne and Monash University in partnership with the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority of the Department of Education and Development of the Early Childhood of Victoria. Melbourne and Monash Universities are running workshops for teachers and educators on the pilot, as well as promoting the pilot to parents.

The pilot program is a subject added to the final year curriculum in the twelve public schools in the state of Victoria. The subject is a modified version of the first-year computer science curriculum of the two partner universities, taught in two modalities: face-to-face teaching in the twelve selected secondary schools and through online subjects.

The computer science pilot course is not teaching students to use technology, because they already know it. The course aims to broaden your thinking to a level of academic rigor equivalent to high school and college standards. Therefore, students will be able to create software and focus on specialized skills, such as complex analysis, that high-tech employers seek, thus exploring a multidisciplinary approach to computer science and engineering. An introduction to the skills required at the college level is expected to increase students’ confidence in applied techniques.

University of Melbourne graduates in computer science and information communication technology (ICT) courses have a 90% employment rate within six months of graduation. The high employment rate is also expected to improve the program rate of high schools transitioning to computer science and STEM courses in college.

The United States and the United Kingdom have had computer science programs in their secondary curricula for twenty years and the subject is taken as part of the International Baccalaureate. However, Australia has lagged behind in introducing computer science and engineering subjects to secondary school. If the pilot is successful, the topic will be included in the secondary school curriculum of the national schools.