Chapter 26: Computational Thinking for Stem Teacher Leadership Training at Louisiana State University

According to the U.S. Bureaus of Labor Statistics computing occupations are the number one source of all new wages and make up 77% of all projected new jobs in STEM fields. In 2017 Louisiana had 455 computer science graduates, with only 24% of them being female. Only 16% of the public schools in Louisiana offer computer science. In 2017–2018 only 43 high schools offered an AP Computer Science course. Only 536 total exams taken in either of the two AP Computer Science courses in Louisiana for 2018. AP Computer Science examinees represented only 1.5% of the total number of students who took an AP test, which made it the least taken AP exam in Louisiana. Although computer science enrollment at Louisiana State University (LSU) has almost doubled over the last five years, LSU’s undergraduate STEM teacher preparation program (GeauxTeach) and LSU ‘s four graduate level professional degree programs for teachers¹ do not offer introductory computational thinking or programming courses suitable for pre-service teacher training. The two courses we are piloting, Computational Thinking for Future Teachers (CTFT) and Computer Science Teaching Methods (CS Methods), will enhance the educational experiences offered at LSU.