Northern Wyoming Community College District has a new computer science certificate designed for teachers seeking a Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board Computer Science endorsement. The Computer Science Pathway Certificate, recently approved by the Wyoming Community College Commission, focuses on the topics, tools and best practices needed to teach computer science in grades 6 through 12.
This 16-hour certificate allows teachers to gain the competencies they need to support a variety of computer science classes. Those completing the program take with them both knowledge and a set of easy-to-use instructional tools for their classrooms. The program is available completely online, and most classes are offered both fall and spring semesters.
“We’re proud to be able to offer this certificate completely online so that all Wyoming teachers, not just those located within our District, have access to this opportunity to sharpen their computer science skills for the benefit of their students,” said President Dr. Walter Tribley.
Among other outcomes, teachers who complete the program will be able to use appropriate techniques, technologies and tools to implement solutions to computational problems; work with both procedural and object-oriented code; apply programming knowledge to debug and fix broken code; and gain hands-on experience with modern tools and environments for teaching programming.
According to Computer Science Instructor E. Anne Gunn, the certificate directly addresses demand created by Senate Enrolled Act 48.
“The certificate was set up in consultation with the Wyoming PTSB to directly address demand created by Senate Enrolled Act 48, which requires computer science classes to be offered in school districts not later than the 2022-2023 school year,” said Gunn. This year, we added sections for two of the core courses to our spring and summer schedules to meet the demand from teachers from across the state.”
Teachers interested in enrolling in the program can apply at www.sheridan.edu or contact Gunn at egunn@sheridan.edu for more information.
