NCWIT AspireIT Toolkit: Raise Awareness

Utilize the NCWIT resources below to help inform yourself, participants, volunteers, and parents on the importance of computer science education for K-12 students, with a focus on broadening the participation of girls, women, and other underrepresented populations.

The AspireIT Capacity Building Roadmap is designed to aid policy makers or those who are working at the state level to broaden participation in computer science in their community. Download this resource to learn about the state of CS in your state, discover how to talk about the importance of CS with others, find potential partners, and more.

Download this one-page flyer to share with others everything the AspireIT Toolkit has to offer.

Tell others about what you are doing! Download this Promotion Ideas document for ideas and resources on how to get press coverage.

STEM Next // Million Girls Moonshot Video Resource Library

After connecting with STEM Next and Million Girls Moonshot and creating the Capacity Building Roadmap to assist their 50 state afterschool networks to broaden the participation of CS in their states, the AspireIT team brought in various guest speakers to offer the networks support through a Community of Practice series of professional development workshops. Each session took a deep dive into equipping participants with the tools they need to advocate for the importance of computing education in their communities. Below, you can find video clips from this series to reference, use, and share.

The State of K-12 CS Ed

Sean Roberts, the VP of Government Affairs at Code.org, shares the state of CS in high school classes and outlines the organization’s policy ideas for making computer science fundamental to K-12 education and improving representation.

How to Facilitate CS Concepts

Guest presenter Hannah McDowell offers tips from CSTeachingTips.org and discusses how to use pair programming when teaching CS concepts, noting that this approach is engaging, beneficial for participants, and optimized for learning.

Building Equity from the Start

Jean Ryoo, an educational researcher from UCLA, discusses the growing body of research that is shining a light on how tech plays a central role in communities and influences everything in our lives, but only certain populations are benefitting.

Create a One-Day Event

Tanner Bergamo, AspireIT Program Manager at NCWIT, explains the three core values of the AspireIT Toolkit — including examples of each value in practice — and how you can use the AspireIT One-Day Event Guide in your community .

Find Partners to Collaborate

Karen Peterson, from the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), talks about their organizational model and best practices for finding and building successful collaborations with partners and programs that engage youth in STEM.

Host a State Summit

Sarah Dunton, from the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance, walks through the five-stage model of state change surrounding broadening participation in computing and outlines how summits can be pillars for advocacy.

Why Computer Science?

The Current State of Girls and Women in Computing

Promoting Diversity in Computer Science

Engaging Peer Mentors

Engaging School Counselors