In 2020, Missouri State University received an Education, Innovation and Research Early Phase grant from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Worth $4 million, the grant’s purpose was to implement the Computer-Science Opportunities, Development and Education in Rural Schools (CODERS) project over five years.  

CODERS is a collaborative project among faculty members from the College of Education (COE), College of Natural and Applied Sciences and Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities.  

Led by project director Dr. Keri Franklin, professor of English and director of the Center for Writing in College, Career and Community, CODERS assists rural teachers in engaging their students in computer science, computational thinking, physics and writing in elementary and middle grades. 

Since CODERS began, it has worked with 54 rural teachers, over 3,000 students and 17 rural school districts. According to Franklin, data show that CODERS is having a significant impact on student scores.  

“Students from those districts who have participated in CODERS increase science scores by 46% and 10% in mathematics,” Franklin said.  

These results came from 850 students before and after collecting CODERS data. Test scores were taken before CODERS was implemented.

Seminars on campus

The CODERS project team offers seminars on campus every summer and four times during the school year. To date, teachers from 19 rural communities have participated.

The teachers receive hands-on training on how to teach computer science, coding and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)-related subjects to students in fun and engaging ways. 

A group of teachers was on campus June 4-6 for the summer seminar. Helping with the seminar was Dr. Tammi Davis, a faculty member in COE’s School of Teaching, Learning and Development Sciences. 

Davis works closely with the teachers to support them as they teach lessons in the classroom and monitors the submission of their teaching reflections. She also works with the group’s teaching leaders who led much of the professional development this summer. 

According to Davis, one of her favorite parts of the project is helping teachers choose how to use their designated grant funding to expand their classrooms. 

“One teacher built a computer lab STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) room based on supplies she got from our grant,” Davis said.  

Davis grew up going to a rural school in southern Indiana. 

“If you turn left at the stoplight, you pass driver’s ed, so that tells you how small my community was,” Davis said. 

She notes the CODERS project gives opportunities to students that she wished she had as a student. 

“I wish I was exposed to computer science in elementary/middle school, which is the age group we work with on this grant,” Davis said. “The first time I really did any type of computer coding was in college and I think that’s too late.” 

Career education 

The CODERS project also aims to help teachers by providing them with resources for their classroom to promote STEM-based career fields to students.  

Examples of these resources include the IF/THEN Collection and Educator Hub, which highlight real photographs of women in their STEM-related field. 

“Computer science is one of many jobs students could be eligible for, so we teach that career component as well,” Davis said. 

Find out more about CODERS