SUCCEED: Program Structure and Curriculum

Overview

Staff member Ismael Torres mentors a beginning apprentice in fall 2006. The SUCCEED Apprenticeship Program (SAP) seeks to develop and evaluate activities and support mechanisms that move students from an excitement for computational science and information technology (IT) to having experience and developing expertise. Students learn one or more areas of computational science and associated use of technologies, techniques, and tools of IT, within the context of STEM.

The program has made significant progress in developing and evaluating a methodology for bridging this excitement-expertise gap for upper-middle and high school students.

Participants

The SUCCEED Apprenticeship Program, in its third year, has already surpassed its goal of working with 100 students over a three-year period. Below are some details about our participants.

Rising 9th-12th graders
71 apprentices currently enrolled
Each apprentice spends 780 hours in the program over the course of two years
Apprentices are recruited from Shodor SUCCEED Workshops, local school-based programs, and summer camp programs
Students are interviewed and admitted based on their interests in IT and STEM; parents sign a contract committing their support for their student's participation in the project

Each year, the project has attracted a more ethnically diverse group. In the first year, only five of the ten groups listed were represented; now all are.

Program Structure and Curriculum

	School Year	Summer
Time commitment	18 hours per month	6 weeks, full-time
All Students Must	attend Saturday workshops twice a month to learn new computational science and STEM skills spend additional time working in the office on projects	attend career days and team building activities
Beginners (first year)	attend workshops on basic IT skills: agent modeling, web design, programming, graphics two-month subject modules culminating in creative group projects	attend classes in math, journaling, problem solving, creative thinking help Shodor staff on STEM projects
Advanced (second year)	teams begin projects for actual clients: mentored by a Shodor staff members workshops on software development process, high level design, detailed design, database/ER diagrams, user interface, and testing	work on and complete client projects projects must pass a quality assurance process of verification and validation

Throughout the year, all students additionally:

Practice the five competencies outlined the the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills ( SCANS): resources, interpersonal skills, information, systems, and technology
Improve math skills using computational tools
Improve writing skills by completing weekly journals to reflect on what they have learned
Improve communication skills through regular discussions with their mentor and through oral presentation

Skills Learned

Calandra McNeill teaches a class for advanced apprentices in fall 2006.

Programming (PERL, Java, PHP)
Databases
Web Design
Agent Modeling
Systems Modeling
Excel
Operating Systems / UNIX
Verification and Validation
Graphics
Competencies outlined in the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)
Math Skills
Web Searching