Programs
STARS programs and events are designed to build capacity, ignite action, and foster
community for broadening participation of underrepresented groups in computing.
STARS Ignite
Looking to take promising steps for addressing needs for diversity, equity, and inclusion in your computing department?
The STARS Ignite program helps faculty prepare to support diverse cohorts of students to attend diversity-oriented conferences, providing scholarships and activities that build community, sense of belonging, and ignite efforts for diversity, equity, and inclusion within their own computing departments.
Attending diversity-focused conferences presents students with opportunities to engage in professional development, connect to professional networks, be inspired by leaders in computing, and celebrate diversity in computing. By attending as a STARS Ignite cohort prepared to think about context, needs, and action for broadening participation in computing, the impact of conference attendance can be amplified. Through workshops, webinars, and online resources, Ignite helps cohorts to follow up on what they’ve learned at the conference and through the Ignite program to design and implement projects that address their own local context and needs and to take action to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in computing in their home computing department.
We hope you'll post and share our 2021 STARS IGNITE Flyer!
Computing departments and faculty are invited to include the STARS Ignite program as part of their NSF CISE BPC plan.
STARS Launch
Looking for support in finding and adopting evidence-based approaches to broadening participation in computing? Have a promising approach you’d like to share and evaluate?
STARS Launch supports the development, adoption, and propagation of evidence-based approaches for broadening participation in computing within the STARS network of colleges and universities. The program supports faculty, students, and staff in the adoption of BPC interventions through workshops, conference sessions, professional development opportunities, and the distribution of materials and programs-in-a-box.
Since 2006, STARS Launch programs have included Pair Programming (Williams, 2000); STARS Mentoring, which partners advanced and developing college computing students to lead K12 computing outreach projects (Boyer, 2010), Tiered Research Experiences for Undergraduates (TREU), which prepares faculty to lead and recruiting students to participate in socially relevant computing and BPC research; and BJC-STARS, which engages computing faculty and students in CS for All efforts to support high school teachers to offer the Beauty and Joy of Computing Computer Science Principles course (Milliken, 2019). In addition, STARS has also hosted faculty workshops on inclusive pedagogies and teaching practices, such as Lightweight Teams (Latulipe, 2015).
For those looking to propagate their promising practices, STARS Launch provides a national distribution point for educational reforms with particularly strong channels to those groups of students who have traditionally been the hardest for our field to reach.
Computing departments and faculty are invited to include the STARS Launch program.
STARS Leadership Corps
Interested in using computing to address issues of social justice, including addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in computing?
The STARS Leadership Corps (SLC) is our proven, flagship program for building capacity and igniting action for BPC. In the SLC, college faculty support college student teams to develop and lead service learning projects that are grounded in providing equitable access to inclusive computing education as an issue of social justice, provide a socially relevant context for CS knowledge, and present opportunities for meaningful practice of CS skills; building these connections and skills through SLC participation is a key part of the STARS approach to increasing persistence in computing degree programs.
The SLC incorporates best practices in service learning, including student co-creation of projects; team-based training and execution; and reflection. STARS provides BPC training opportunities for STARS faculty and SLC cohorts through the STARS Celebration and webinars. Each SLC cohort works together to identify service learning projects that leverage their collective computing knowledge, individual skills, and institutional resources to address the local context and needs for broadening participation. SLC cohorts often select outreach projects that provide CS learning opportunities to pre-college students, but faculty leaders may also steer SLC projects to address departmental needs (e.g., implementing peer instruction as an inclusive CS education practice) or to support socially relevant research projects that advance students’ knowledge and increase engagement in computing. SLC cohorts carry out their service-learning projects during the academic year, supported by STARS webinars on leading successful service-learning projects, evaluating BPC activities and their impact; and computing skills/professional development.
Interested in starting a STARS Leadership Corps chapter at your institution? Join the STARS Academic Alliance!
STARS BPC Research Scholars
Are you a student interested in learning how to conduct research? Are you a faculty member looking to build capacity at your institution for evaluating your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts? Students can apply to join the STARS Broadening Participation in Computing Research Scholars program.
The STARS BPC Research program (BPCR) serves a national resource, with an online STARS BPC Research Toolkit of learning materials, tools, and resources, as well as in-person training workshops and online webinars, building capacity for new BPC researchers and the BPC community. The program provides undergraduate and graduate students with training and resources to scaffold engagement in broadening participation in computing research and evaluation (Dahlberg, 2011; Payton, 2015, Rorrer, 2019). With guidance from faculty mentors and evaluation experts, STARS BPCR Scholars are guided through conducting a BPC research project with a well-defined hypothesis and study design that uses validated assessment instruments and tools. BPR Training workshops are offered at the STARS Celebration and RESPECT conferences on topics including: human subjects research and ethics, critical theory that underlies interventions for BPC, and designing research studies and evaluation plans. Workshops also introduce the STARS BPR Toolkit, which includes guides for applying BPC research methodologies, a collection of BPC assessment instruments, and tools.
CISE PIs seeking to include BPC plans in their proposals are invited to collaborate with us to include the STARS BPCR program or toolkit to build their capacity for effective BPC work.
STARS CS for All Scholars
Are you a high school teacher looking for ways to prepare for online/remote delivery of your CS Principles course? Are you an undergraduate student in computer science or in education looking for a summer and academic year research opportunity that advances equitable computer science learning opportunities? Apply to join our Summer 2020 STARS CS for All Scholars Program!
STARS CS for All Scholars will conduct research on how to address challenges in fostering individualized and collaborative Computer Science Principles learning experiences for high school students participating in online and remote learning environments. Scholars work with faculty mentors as part of a research team of 6 members: 2 teachers who are planning to teach the Beauty and Joy of Computing Computer Science Principles course to high school students, 2 undergraduate students enrolled in a computer science degree program and 2 undergraduates students enrolled in an education degree program.
Through the identification of appropriate tools and the co-creation of online and alternative "unplugged" remote learning projects that align with CS Principles learning objectives, our STARS CS for All Scholars program will support teachers in realizing their goals for providing more equitable access to CS learning experiences for high school students. We envision that teams will create activities and supports that allow for a range of CS activities, from totally unplugged for students with no computer and no internet, to computer-based for those with computers but no internet, to mobile-phone based, to online computer-based with collaboration support within the Snap programming environment.
Teachers and students selected for this program receive a weekly stipend to support their participation. See our STARS CS for All Scholars page for more information, including how to apply and important dates.