Professor Harry Cheng, the developer and leader of the UC Davis Center for Integrated Computing and STEM Education (C-STEM), has developed innovative curriculum that integrates academic and career technical subjects. Using Cheng’s approach, students learn how to integrate computer programming as well as logical and critical thinking skills. The results have shown significant potential in closing the math achievement gap for student subgroups that have historically underperformed.

Here is a short video on how students and parents appreciate the C-STEM program.

Congratulations to Professor Cheng for receiving the UC Davis 2016 Innovator of the Year Award!

The Innovator of the Year Award recognizes individual faculty or staff, or teams (which may also include students) whose inventive, innovative or entrepreneurial activities have had a measurable societal impact or have a very strong potential to do so. Cheng has worked at UC Davis for 24 years and has dedicated the past 10 years to transforming K-12 math education through computing and robotics.

Focused on integrating computing and robotics into regular STEM classroom with hands-on project-based learning, the C-STEM Center has developed innovative computing and robotics technologies with C-STEM Studio and RoboBlockly, teaching strategies, textbooks, and courseware including  lesson plans, PowerPoint lessons, video lessons, group computing activities, optional robotics activities, and assessment tools for readily integration of computer programming in C/C++ using Ch (a user-friendly C/C++ interpreter Ch) and robotics into the formal curricula in elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges.

More than 200 schools in California have officially adopted the C-STEM curriculum, which directly benefits more than 10,000 students.