Gelfand Center

Alice is an innovative block-based programming environment that makes it easy to create animations, build interactive narratives, or program simple games in 3D. Unlike many of the puzzle-based coding applications, Alice motivates learning through creative exploration. Alice is designed to teach logical and computational thinking skills, fundamental principles of programming and to be a first exposure to object-oriented programming. The Alice Project provides supplemental tools and materials for teaching using Alice across a spectrum of ages and subject matter with proven benefits in engaging and retaining diverse and underserved groups in computer science education.

Alice is used by teachers at all levels from middle schools (and sometime even younger) to universities, in school classrooms and in after school and out of school programming, and in subjects ranging from visual arts and language arts to the fundamentals of programming and introduction to java courses.

The Architecture Explorations program encourages Pittsburgh youth to look closely at their built environment, be open to creative expression, ask questions, think critically, and understand civic responsibility - all through the lens of architecture. Architecture Explorations is a collection of architecture-based extracurricular and academic enrichment programs for students in kindergarten through high school, offered through Carnegie Mellon's School of Architecture. Our organization partners with several Pittsburgh communities, schools, and museums to provide an array of architecture education programs. Whether you are a student, parent, counselor, teacher, or community organization, we would love to hear from you and help devise a plan to provide a program that is tailored for each appropriate age-group and organization.

The Arts Greenhouse is a hip-hop music education program for Pittsburgh teens that is affiliated with Carnegie Mellon’s Studio for Creative Inquiry. With the help of faculty and students, as well as local hip-hop performers, teens write, compose, and then record songs in a state-of-the-art recording studio. Through the process teens develop musical and verbal skills, gain familiarity with historical and contemporary issues, and form connections that open new routes to community participation and to higher education.

A variety of camps and clinics are offered each summer. Programs include FITT Camp for children aged 7-14, soccer camp for children ages 5-14, Learn to Swim Classes and more!

This learning management system offers hundreds of hours of research-based, outcomes-driven curriculum. Students and teachers can freely use the site to learn and earn badges in a variety of topics, including robotics, computer science, and related fields. The site has nearly 27,000 users who have earned more than 2 million achievements.

Contact: Jesse Flot
Email: jbflot@cmu.edu 
Site: https://www.cs2n.org/curriculum

CMU CS Academy began when co-founders, and professors in SCS, David Kosbie and Mark Stehlik were approached by Pittsburgh Public School teachers, asking for a computer science curriculum to meet their students' needs.

From those conversations, David and Mark set out to achieve one goal - access for all to high-quality computer science education for anyone who wants it. For that reason CMU CS Academy is, and always will be, free for schools to offer to their students.

The project was initially run as a course on CS Pedagogy in SCS but after the first year that model transitioned to our current model as a non-profit organization at CMU that employs CMU students.

Contact: Erin Cawley
Email: ecawley@andrew.cmu.edu 
Phone: 412-268-3117
Site: https://academy.cs.cmu.edu/, https://www.cs.cmu.edu/outreach/programs/cs-academy

The Educational Technology Community is a unique project of Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center made possible through the generous support of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and Grable Foundation. The network focuses on exploring and developing experimental educational initiatives in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Eastern OH through collaboration. 

The goals:

• Transform teaching and learning approaches by sharing educational applications and curricular innovations developed at the ETC with the community.
• Co-create, develop and deliver teacher and student training in the use of ETC crafted applications and experience.
• Grow Professional Learning Communities of teachers who share their experiences, ideas and expertise while they try new pedagogy, applications, and e-tools.
• Work with school districts, their teachers, and students already using ETC educational application to expand and improve their use in their schools.

Every academic semester the ETC holds a Playtest Day when graduate student teams make available their project work for guests for playtesting. The work is “in progress” with the playtests useful to help improve the final project delivery. The term playtest indicates the use of an experience or game by a guest to see whether it is performing as expected. Guests have in the past tested from three to six projects over the course of two hours, along with an optional tour of the ETC and a meal break that starts off or ends the visit. Some projects have experiences requiring two or more guests at once, while others are meant to be used alone.

Everyday Engineering is a Spring semester virtual event for students in 6^th – 8^th grades with the intent to demonstrate that engineering is all around us. Our goal is to get middle school students thinking about their environments with more curious eyes. We want them to look at everyday items from sporting equipment to food to electronics to furniture and beyond and ask themselves:

• “What problem does this solve?”
• “Who has the problem?”
• “Why is it important to solve the problem?”
• “What types of engineering were used to solve the problem?”

The event includes a presentation that introduces them to various engineering disciplines through recognizable examples, as well as a series of exhibits for the students to visit where they can interact with CMU engineering students to learn more about the objects on display and the engineering concepts that go into them.

Contact: Rita Canton
Email: rcanton@andrew.cmu.edu 
Site: https://engineering.cmu.edu/education/outreach/programs/everyday-engineering.html

The Explore Engineering Expo, hosted by CMU’s Engineering Ambassadors, is an in-person experience held on CMU’s Pittsburgh campus in the spring. This interactive event features engineering demos and activities for students in grades 3 through 8.

The focus of the expo in Spring 2022 was on the environment. Attendees learned about clean water, bioremediation, recycling, self-watering gardens, the importance of pH, and even how certain fruits and vegetables can conduct electricity. During the expo, attendees had an opportunity to interact with CMU engineering students in small groups to learn about these topics and to ask questions, allowing participants to be fully engaged in each demo.

Contact: Rita Canton
Email: rcanton@andrew.cmu.edu 
Site: https://engineering.cmu.edu/education/outreach/programs/explore-engineering-expo.html

The Leonard Gelfand Center for Service Learning and Outreach hosts week-long programs during the summer (June and July) and on select Saturdays in the fall and spring for students in grades K-9. These classes are developed by Carnegie Mellon University Faculty and Staff and are designed to be rigorous, educational, STEM focused, hands-on and fun.

Check out Gelfand Outreach classes & program information to learn more.

This after-school outreach effort at CMU's Field Robotics uses the FIRST® robotics platform for K-12 programs. FIRST is an international organization that holds competitions to engage the students. More than a robotics team, Girls of Steel Robotics is a program of FIRST teams and community outreach, serving girls and boys in grades K-12 in Greater Pittsburgh.

Email: girlsofsteelrobotics@gmail.com
or Elizabeth Kysel, Lead Mentor kysele@andrew.cmu.edu

Site: http://www.girlsofsteelrobotics.com

This olympiad is a contest in which high-school students solve linguistic puzzles. In solving the problems, students learn about the diversity and consistency of language, while exercising logic skills. No prior knowledge of linguistics or second languages is necessary. Professionals in linguistics, computational linguistics and language technologies use dozens of languages to create engaging problems that represent cutting edge issues in their fields. The competition has attracted top students to study and work in those same fields. It is truly an opportunity for young people to experience a taste of natural-language processing in the 21st century.

There is NO participation fee!

Many students leave middle school without the basic skills they need for STEM success in high school. SCS has created a bridge program to help close that gap, catching participating rising 9th graders up on the math skills they need before their first semester of high school. By intervening early, the program hopes to better prepare more Pittsburgh students to pursue STEM majors in college.

Contact: Ashley Patton 
Email: cspathways@andrew.cmu.edu 
Site: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/outreach/programs/middle-school-bridge

The National Robotics Engineering Center provides tours for schools and groups to show kids the real-world application of the robotics concepts they learn in school. Participants see all of the robots and technology that the centers develops for use out in the world from different sectors like agriculture, defense, maintenance and more.

*NREC has restrictions and a process to sign-in due to it being a secure research facility.*

Contact: Vu Nguyen
Email: vnguyen@nrec.ri.cmu.edu
Site: https://www.nrec.ri.cmu.edu/index.html

The vision behind OpenSimon is a more integrated and easier-to-use toolkit, used and expanded by a larger community of educators to drive deliberate, iterative improvements in education. This approach supports educators as citizen scientists, and helps the people who support them — at universities and companies that make educational products — provide help that is grounded in the science of learning.

Contact: Erin Czerwinski
Email: eczerwinski@cmu.edu
Phone: 412-268-8577
Site: https://www.cmu.edu/simon/open-simon/toolkit/tools/index.html

The CMU Physics Department offers a variety of outreach opportunities for middle school students that can be done remote, onsite at schools, and/or onsite at CMU. Topics include: General Physics Topics, Astronomy and Cosmology, Biology & Physics, and Partical & Nuclear Physics. 

This free computer security gamified education program offers original educational content built on a capture-the-flag framework created by CMU security and privacy experts. Learners of all skill levels gain access to a safe and unique hands-on experience as they reverse-engineer, break, hack, decrypt, and think creatively and critically to solve challenges and capture digital flags. They learn and practice cybersecurity principles with picoCTF's noncompetitive features, then put their skills to the test in one of picoCTF's hacking competitions.

Contact: Megan Kearns
Email: mkearns1@andrew.cmu.edu
Site: https://picoctf.org/

PROGRESS takes a fresh approach to address the need for gender equity in society by teaching middle school aged girls (8-12 years old) how to negotiate.

PROGRESS has three core objectives:

• develop local and national tools to teach women and girls how to harness the power of negotiation
• form networks between nonprofit organizations to efficiently disseminate information about issues impacting women
• explore obstacles to and potential solutions for the advancement of women.

Contact: Ayana Ledford
Email:  ledford@andrew.cmu.edu
Phone: (412) 268-8650 
Site: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/progress-equity-leadership/

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy (CMRA) is a research, development, and outreach component of the Robotics Institute. CMRA studies how educators can use robots to teach Computer Science, Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (CS-STEM). Their mission is to use the educational affordances of robotics to create CS-STEM opportunities for all learners. They fulfill their mission by developing research-based solutions that are classroom-tested and foreground CS-STEM concepts.

CMRA offers programs that include teacher training, curriculum, virtual tools, and certifications for both K-12 Robotics Education and Workforce Development. They collaborate with regional and national community to bring their programs to underserved populations in sustainable ways. All programs are delivered through their CS-STEM Network learning management system (www.cs2n.org) which enables educators to create free accounts and track participant progress.

Contact: Jesse Flot
E-mail: jbflot@andrew.cmu.edu
Phone: (412) 681-7160
Site: https://www.cmu.edu/roboticsacademy/

This programs gives young BSA scouts the opportunity to earn the Robotics Merit Badge as part of Alpha Phi Omega's Merit Badge University days.

Contact: Vu Nguyen
E-mail: vnguyen@nrec.ri.cmu.edu
Site: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/outreach/programs/robotics-merit-badge

High School and Middle School Day is an annual event in which the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) invites approximately 250 Pittsburgh middle and high school girls to CMU’s campus. It is one of SWE’s largest outreach events and collaborates with CMU professors and students from various campus organizations. The girls are able to participate in activities related to electrical, mechanical, civil, biomedical, material science and chemical engineering. The event aims to help young girls get a better idea of what engineering entails and offers them guidance and advice for pursuing engineering, while allowing CMU students and faculty to share their knowledge and passion for engineering and inspire young women.

Contact: Dr. Nisha Shukla
Email: nisha@andrew.cmu.edu or cmuswe@andrew.cmu 
Phone: (412) 268-4827
Site: https://cmuswe.org/

ECE Outreach began creating sessions for the SPARK Saturdays program in Fall 2012, and held our first two sessions in Spring 2013. In Spring 2015 we expanded our reach to middle school students and local high schools through the Snap Circuit Lab and the Mobile Labs programs, respectively. We hope to keep expanding in the future. Professor Tom Sullivan has been the faculty sponsor at CMU for ECE Outreach since its onset.

SPARK Saturdays is structured to be six sessions, held on campus about every other Saturday. Each session lasts two hours and consist of a learning portion and a hands-on activity, led by CMU students. The entire SPARK Saturdays series is held once every semester, and aimed at high school students. No prior knowledge on the part of the students is assumed. The sessions are structured to introduce students to a wide variety of electrical and computer engineering concepts to help them decide whether this might be a good career path for them.

Mobile Labs is an adaptation of SPARK Saturdays, still geared toward high school students, but brought to schools. The labs are typically held after school for interested students.

Email: eceoutreach@gmail.com  
Site: http://eceoutreach.ece.cmu.edu/about.html 

The Summer Engineering Experience (SEE) is a week-long summer experience for students between the ages of 13-16 who are interested in math and science. SEE gives students hands-on experience in different forms of engineering.

TechNights (Creative Technology Nights for Girls) is a program focused on exposing middle school girls to creative technologies. Using computer animation, web design, programming, robotics, and interactive medias, we hope to engage a future generation of women in technology. The workshops are designed and presented by Carnegie Mellon undergraduate and graduate students. The program is offered at no charge.

Email: scs-dei@cs.cmu.edu
Site: https://www.cmu.edu/scs/technights/

Teknowledge's impact on K-12 STEM learning in the region is twofold: 1) offering afterschool programs in under-resourced middle schools, where mentors work closely with students to teach them coding; and 2) developing CS K-12 curricula, which teachers and other program providers can use to teach CS to their students. One of the ongoing goals is to establish sustainable pipelines, such that students can continue to engage with CS throughout their 6th-12th grade schooling experience.  Teknowledge has partnered with organizations such as Homewood YMCA, South Fayette School District, and Pittsburgh Public Schools (Obama Academy and Westinghouse Academy).

Contact: Mark Stehlik 
Email: mjs@andrew.cmu.edu 
Site: http://teknowledge.xyz/

This is a highly interactive presentation by undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon who talk about why/how they began studying the area, their current experiences, what Computer Science means to them now, and their future hopes and expectations. The middle and high school presentations include a guessing game, a slide show of CS applications, algorithm style puzzles, a robot demo, and much more. The spin-off graduate level Roadshow (presented to undergrads) includes general information on going to graduate school and short research talks.