Mobile County Public Schools Creates a Movement in Computer Science Education

BOSTON, May 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, Dr. Ursula Martin and Dr. Allyson Chappell of the Instructional Technology team in Mobile County Public Schools won the "Unruliest District Innovators'' award. This award is presented annually by Unruly Studios, the creator of Unruly Splats, for outstanding efforts in bringing high quality computer science education to the elementary and middle school students.

Known as "The Doublemint Twins" for their teamwork and collaboration, the duo's work is driven by a shared goal of "having the most positive impact on students," noted Dr. Martin.

In 2019, Alabama passed the Computer Science Bill, which mandated every K-12 school to offer a high-quality computer science course by 2022. With this bill and the required digital literacy standards, the team began their work to support schools, administrators, and teachers on their instructional technology journey.

To do this, the Instructional Technology team has created comprehensive support and resources for both school administrators and teachers. This includes initiatives such as online professional development courses, in-person instructional technology trainings at the central office, and even pushing directly into classrooms.

One of the biggest challenges to tackle is building awareness of how the digital literacy and computer science standards can integrate into core subject standards, such as math and reading, without being viewed as an additional requirement. For Dr. Chappell, "We want to help teachers get to the point where integrating the [technology] standards in their classroom is fluid."

Access to resources that easily integrate into multiple classrooms throughout the school day helps foster this fluidity. For them, one of those resources is Unruly Splats. Starting in one school in May 2023, Unruly Splats quickly expanded into eight Mobile schools.

Dr. Chappell attributes the growth of Unruly Splats to its ease of use and seamless integration with both computer science and core subjects. "The Unruly Splats give teachers an accessible entry way to incorporating computer science without having to do high tech coding," said Dr. Chappell.

For Dr. Martin, "The movement component of Unruly Splats is really engaging for students. With Unruly, students do not have to be tied to their computer to learn coding. They can be out of their seats and moving and there is a lot of research that supports the benefits of movement in learning."

The availability of direct teacher support from the Unruly team has also allowed Dr. Chappell and Dr. Martin to feel confident introducing Unruly Splats to other schools within Mobile.

From "The Doublemint Twins" to the "Unruliest District Innovators", Dr. Martin and Dr. Chappell look forward to continuing to create impactful computer science education opportunities for the students of Mobile County.

Learn more about Unruly Splats in Mobile at https://pages.unrulysplats.com/mobile.

About Unruly Studios
Unruly Studios is the creator of Unruly Splats. Unruly Studios' vision is to create STEM learning experiences that are playful, collaborative, and inclusive. Their newly released Unruly Math product brings the kinesthetic learning of Unruly Splats into elementary math classrooms.

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SOURCE Unruly Studios