Planting the seeds of STEM
Eager students lean forward in their seats to watch an animated car drive across the screen at the front of the classroom. Hands shoot into the air as the classmates consider the instructor’s question about the relevant JavaScript functions. While it could be a scene from a computer science course at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in this case SEAS students are the instructors, teaching programming to a class of middle schoolers at the Gardner Pilot Academy in Allston. The instructors, members of the Harvard student-driven Digital Literacy Project (DLP), are working through one lesson in a 10-week computer science curriculum the organization is offering at seven local middle schools this year. The DLP outreach model is unusual because lessons are presented during the school day. “Just as these students might go to art class or music class, they are also going to get a taste...