Denver Public Schools

• Spreading Innovation
• Denver's Curriculum

Denver Public School's Computer Magnet Program set out to engender a community feeling with the establishment of their four-year, technology curriculum. They were keenly aware of the potential positive impact their program could have on students, parents, teachers, and others in the extended Denver community.

Gary Goodnight and other educators involved in the establishment of the Computer Magnet Program recognized the need to make community connections by developing pathways between courses and programs taught at the middle, high school, and university levels. The result is that the Magnet program has established partnerships and programming between Denver North High School, Thomas Jefferson High School, Boulder High School, and the University of Colorado. These connections go a long way in extending opportunities for students to develop their knowledge and skills across grade levels. By example, the Magnet Program cooperated with the University of Colorado to presents DigitalCurrents , a summer camp for middle school students -led by high school students in the Magnet program.

Denver's Magnet program is designed to appeal to a wide variety of learners, and it is also aimed at attracting students from under-represented populations. Goodnight and his team set out to develop an innovative and engaging curriculum using a project-based learning approach. Highlights of the lesson planning materials and presentations developed with funds from the Sun Foundation include:

• Just-in-time teaching and learning concepts and skills offered on an as-needed basis
• Content scaled to match various student maturity and competency levels
• Media-rich learning environments where students can gain access to a wide variety of tools and resources
• Project management skills embedded in all student projects
• Use of real-world projects developed and completed for real clients

Both educators and students from the Magnet program and Denver Public Schools have worked to promote their innovative approach and curriculum. Denver Public School educators gave a series of presentations at the Colorado Technology Education Conference, and student graduates of the Magnet program presented at the National Academy Foundation Staff Development Institute in New York.

Results from outreach and recruitment efforts have been impressive. Of the 446 students enrolled in the Magnet program, 283 are minorities and women, and enrollments continue to climb.

Goodnight and his colleagues developed four years of curricula offering students experience working in three different strands: networking and computer troubleshooting, multimedia and the Web, and computer programming. Selected sample lessons and presentations below relate to specific strands of the curriculum in Pre-Java and or Java. The lessons have been further developed and modified with funds from the Sun Foundation. References are made to Colorado Curriculum Frameworks, and national standards set forth by the Technology International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE), including ICT Literacy. Please find a description of each assignment and activity below: