About
Building Capacity for Indiana Preservice Computer Science Education (BCPCS) is a grant-funded initiative led by Drs. Susan Drumm, Anne Leftwich, Thomas Brush, and Jeremy Price at Indiana University Bloomington and Indiana University Indianapolis, in collaboration with the Indiana Department of Education and Nextech.
Our mission is to enhance and expand computer science (CS) learning opportunities for Indiana PK-12 students by strengthening the capacity of educator preparation programs (EPPs) across the state.
Please visit our official website for additional information.
Our Goals
BCPCS seeks to build capacity for CS integration in K-12 classrooms through the following:
- Needs Analyses – Identifying challenges, gaps, and opportunities to effectively integrate CS education into preservice teacher preparation programs.
- Professional Learning – Providing targeted professional learning for preservice teacher educators and preservice teachers, equipping them to embed CS standards across content areas.
- Curriculum Development & Sharing – Designing and distributing resources that integrate CS concepts into elementary subject areas, ensuring the accessibility of high-quality, CS integrated lessons.
Through strategic partnerships with Indiana’s Teacher Preparation Programs and training for preservice teachers, BCPCS is helping to expand and strengthen computer science education in elementary classrooms.
BCPCS professional learning workshops for preservice teachers include topics such as these:
- Introduction to CS for K-8 Educators
- CSforSocialGood
- Primary AI (Artificial Intelligence in 3rd-5th Life Science)
- ReCT (Integration CT into K-2 Literacy)
- AI Goes Rural (CS/AI Intro for Middle Grade Learners)
- Data Literacy for Teachers and Students
Detailed descriptions for all preservice teacher workshops are available on our website. If you have questions or are interested in providing CS professional learning to your preservice teachers, feel free to reach out directly to Dr. Susan Drumm (sdrumm@iu.edu).
Current progress
Professional Learning
As of April 2025, the BCPCS team visited 11 schools and conducted 29 separate professional learning sessions. The PDs have impacted over 600 preservice teachers with the support of 33 faculty members from preservice teacher training programs in Indiana.
Needs Analysis
In the first year of our initiative, we invited 115 faculty members from Preservice Teacher Education Programs in Indiana to participate in our needs analysis survey and interviews. Of these, 24 faculty members shared valuable insights and experiences on teaching CS education, with nine participating in in-depth interviews. You can read the Year 1 full report here.
Currently, we are expanding our analysis to include in-service teachers. This final report will be completed by the end of Spring 2025.
CS Cohort
Understanding that more can be accomplished through collaboration, in Year 1 we introduced a CS Cohort opportunity. The Year 1 Cohort brought together 20 faculty members from 14 different teacher preparation programs across Indiana. This collaboration involved both asynchronous and synchronous online sessions and activities during April and May 2024. At present, our Year 2 CS Cohort is working together, co-designing lessons for CS integration into content area lessons.
Curriculum Resources
| Curriculum | For preservice teacher PD | For K-6 students |
| CSforSocialGood | Download | Download |
| Primary AI | Download | Download |
| Rethinking Circle Time | Download | Download |
| AI Goes Rural | Download | Download |
| Introduction to CS | Download | Not applicable |
| Data Science in Education | Download | Not applicable |