A Growth Engine for Europe

The Computer Science department at University College London started working with Google in September 2014, following the announcement that computer science would become a core subject in primary and secondary schools. Google provided grants for two department projects. In 2015, the UCL team created a course aimed at teachers to enable them to teach computer science in schools. This year, they developed an innovative software tool that simplifies the way students learn programming, allowing them to focus on problem solving and computational thinking. Although the software is yet to go live, it will be free to download from the www.ispython.com website and will be advertised to the 24,000+ members of Computing at School. Crucially, Google's support has allowed the department to make both projects free to use, enabling them to reach many more people. Dave White, CAS (Computing at School) Master Teacher at UCL, is quick to emphasise the importance of this outreach. “Computer science has a huge part to play in the future of commerce in this country,” he says. “At a time when many young people have difficulty finding jobs, young graduate programmers have many paths to choose from.” The department also appreciates the influence of CS Education in the field. “It’s fun education in my view,” Dave adds. “Google’s Course: Computational Thinking for Educators really complements what we do, so we can recommend it to teachers.”