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An interdisciplinary collaboration between computer engineering and mathematics/bilingual education to develop a curriculum for underrepresented middle school students

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Abstract

There is a strong need in the United States to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Drawing from sociocultural theory, we present approaches to establishing collaborations between computer engineering and mathematics/bilingual education faculty to address this need. We describe our work through the Advancing Out-of-School Learning in Mathematics and Engineering project by illustrating how an integrated curriculum that is based on mathematics with applications in image and video processing can be designed and how it can be implemented with middle school students from underrepresented groups.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to give special thanks to all students, parents, and facilitators whom we worked with during the summer program. We learned much together, and we appreciate all the feedback provided on how to improve future directions of our work. Similarly, we acknowledge that the information used in this article was originally collected in a summer school program as part of a research project conducted by Drs. Carlos A. LópezLeiva and Marios S. Pattichis, Principal Investigators, University of New Mexico as part of Out-of-School Learning in Mathematics and Engineering (OLME). The project was also supported through funds for a postdoctoral fellow from the Office of the Provost, of which Drs. Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis and Marios S. Pattichis were Co-Principal Investigators. A-OLME is supported by the University of New Mexico’s Office of the Provost as well as from the College of Education. The views expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of the funders.

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Correspondence to Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis.

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Lead editors: Alejandro Gallard Martínez and René Antrop González.

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Celedón-Pattichis, S., LópezLeiva, C.A., Pattichis, M.S. et al. An interdisciplinary collaboration between computer engineering and mathematics/bilingual education to develop a curriculum for underrepresented middle school students. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 8, 873–887 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-013-9516-5

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