Interactive Heat-Map of Technology Opportunities in Philadelphia

PROJECT COMPLETED UNDER dr. Yasmin Kafai, Penn Graduate School of Education - Fall 2018

Final Product Available Here - Computer Science Opportunity Heat-Map

Summmary

Work Conducted for Penn's Graduate School of Education (GSE) under Dr. Yasmin Kafai. The project specifically focused on Computer Science Education in Philadelphia.

Our goal was to develop a database of information about opportunities for K-12 students to engage with digital creation and computation outside of school. We created an interactive web-based visualization of this information that was disseminated to the public during Computer Science Education Week in December 2018. This work is conducted as part of CS4Philly.

Background

Research on the modern day Philadelphia education systems show an astounding lack of Computer Science and technology education in the public school system. While private schools and charter schools in the area do provide introductory and AP courses, a meager number of public high schools in Philadelphia offer these resources. With the growing relevance of Computer Science and the increasing demand for technology qualifications, this gravity of this disparity is significant. In hopes to provide a temporary solution, Dr. Kafai’s team began to explore out of school resources for Computer Science and technology education.

The project we took on was two-fold:

  1. Compile a exhaustive list of technology education opportunities for children and young adults in the Philadelphia

  2. Create a user-friendly online resource for parents to be able to easily locate nearby opportunities

With the help of Penn GSE’s Whimsy Map service, we were able to create an interactive heat-map that was broken up by area code. We presented our final product during Computer Science Education Week as a part of CS4Philly.