Youngstown State University’s College of STEM, Beeghly College of Education and the Ohio Youth Entrepreneurship Program are partnering with the Youngstown City School District to offer a program called Youngstown-Coding 4 Entrepreneurship (Y-C4E).
Y-C4E is an innovative computer coding and entrepreneurship program that will be integrated in seventh and eighth grade math classes at the Volney Rogers Junior High School this year.
It will introduce students to computational thinking and the entrepreneurial mindset, skills and attitudes that are critical to students as they pursue their education and explore career options.
Y-C4E has three main objectives. The first objective is to teach a block-based, simple coding curriculum which will be used with a robotic application. Students will use these technical skills as they learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship while developing their own business ideas.
The second objective is to research the effectiveness of Y-C4E by assessing students’ progress in improving their computational thinking and entrepreneurial mindset with tests, interviews, product analyses and eye trackers.
The third objective is to positively impact students’ in-school performance including academics, attendance, discipline and engagement.
An overarching goal of Y-C4E is to influence students’ understanding and fluency in computer science and appreciation of entrepreneurship.
The following YSU faculty members are involved in Y-C4E: Abdu Arslanyilmaz, Coskun Bayrak, Greg Dillon and Julie Smith.
John LaPlante, chief information officer of Youngstown City Schools, Kelly Weeks, principal of Volney Rogers, Tracy Pinter of Volney Rogers Junior High School and Tiffaney Trella, technology integration supervisor for the Youngstown City School District, are also involved with the program.