The document describes the EXCITE project, which aims to enable technology and engineering teachers to lead AP Computer Science Principles courses using an adapted Beauty and Joy of Computing curriculum. The project is a partnership between teachers, researchers, and computer scientists that will provide professional development and support for integrating computer science into STEM classrooms. It highlights example projects created by teacher partners that use sensors and programming to model real-world scenarios like traffic lights, ski lifts, and railroad crossings. The project also plans to expand to additional school districts and provide ongoing summer institutes.

1. ITEEA is adding a transformative HS Computer Science
Principles by Design course to its EbDTM curriculum.
Based on the Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) curriculum
ExCITE will enable Technology and Engineering
Teachers to be lead providers of AP Computer
Science Principles courses nationally.

2. EXCITE IS A RESEARCH PRACTITIONER PARTNERSHIP (RPP)
Matt Davis Chris DeHaan Marnie Hill Tonya Lackey
T&E Teacher T&E Teacher Dept. of Comp. Sci. T&E Teacher
Carroll Co., MD East Lansing, MI NCSU Boquet Valley NY
EXCITE LEAD TEACHERS
RPP INCLUDES TEACHERS, SUPERVISORS, COMPUTER
SCIENTISTS, RESEARCHERS, AND EVALUATORS

3. Edward (Ted) McNett Scott Nichols Kevin Reilly
Assistant Supervisor T&E Supervisor Administrative Coordinator
Career and Technical Education Maryland DOE CTE Resource Center
Carroll Co. Schools, MD. Henrico Co., VA
EXCITE COUNTY- AND STATE-LEVEL SUPERVISORS
Dan Stooks
CTE Educational
Specialist
Henrico County
Schools, VA
George Willcox
Director of
Operations &
Accountability
Office of CTE
VA DOE

4. EXCITE COMPUTER SCIENTISTS, RESEARCHERS, EVALUATORS
Tiffany Barnes
Research Consultant,
Professor of Computer
Science, NCSU.
Brian Harvey, Advisory Board Chair
Professor Emeritus, Engineering and
Computer Science, UC Berkeley
Deborah Hecht.
Evaluation Lead
Center for Advanced
Study in Education, CUNY
Graduate School, NYC
Janet Kolodner Research Consultant
Professor of the Practice and
Co-Director, MA Program in Learning
Engineering, Boston College
Bryanne Peterson LMS Developer
Broader Impacts, STEM Education,
and CTE Scholar, Virginia Tech
Steve Holmes, Educational
Software Developer, Creative
Computer Labs, Ireland

5. ITEEA CENTRAL OFFICE STAFF
Joseph
Fleming
ITEEA Website
and Computer
Ops
Coordinator
Darcie Jones
Director of
Innovation
ITEEA STEM
Center for
Teaching and
Learning
Ryan Novitski
Director of
Learning
ITEEA STEM
Center for
Teaching and
Learning
Katie de la Paz
ITEEA
Communications
Director/Editor-
in-Chief

6. EXCITE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM—CO-PIS
Tony Gordon,
Principal
Investigator
Hofstra
University
Steve Barbato
Co-Principal
Investigator
CEO and
Executive
Director, ITEEA
Michael Hacker
Co-Principal
Investigator
Co-Director
Hofstra University
Center for STEM
Research
Janet Kolodner
Co-Principal
Investigator, and
Research
Consultant
Professor of the
Practice,
Lynch School of
Education and
Human Dev’t.
Boston College

7. A FEW MORE BITS (NO PUN INTENDED)
EXCITE IS NOW A COMPONENT OF ITEEA’S
ENGINEERING BY DESIGN (EBD) CURRICULUM PROGRAM.
IT USES HUMMINGBIRD COMPUTER
CONTROL AND ROBOTIC RESOURCES OR
LOWER-COST ITEEA KITS.
INFORMATION IS ALSO PROVIDED
FOR TEACHERS TO CREATE THEIR OWN MICRO:BIT-BASED KIT.
THE CURRICULUM WILL BE DELIVERED ONLINE VIA ITEEA’S ENGINEERING BY
DESIGN SYSTEM AND WILL ENABLE COLLECTION OF RESEARCH DATA.
EMS Station, Chris DeHaan; MetroCard, Tonya Lackey; Railroad Crossing, Matt Davis

8. Chris DeHaan
EMS Station / Traffic Light:
Students will learn how to use sensors as inputs
to control real-world applications. This
introductory activity is designed to give
students exposure to the various sensors in the
Hummingbird kit while reinforcing the
programming skills that they have acquired
throughout Unit 1 of the BJC Curriculum.

9. EMS Station / Traffic Light
Students are tasked to design and build an EMS
Station with a working garage door, and a
traffic light system.
▣ Students start this activity by programming the speaker
included as part of the Hummingbird interface to sound
like an emergency siren.
▣ The siren is then detected by the sound sensor, which
activates the traffic light and opens the garage door.
▣ The EMS vehicle leaves the EMS station and safely
enters the flow of traffic.

10. EMS Station / Traffic Light
▣ Students use the Ultrasonic sensor to detect when the
EMS vehicle has left the station.
▣ As the vehicle is leaving the station, the garage door
closes.
▣ Once the EMS vehicle has passed through the
intersection, the traffic light pattern returns to normal.
▣ Multiple Hummingbird kits (up to three) can be
connected via Bluetooth to control multiple traffic
lights.

11. EMS Station / Traffic Light

12. EMS Station / Traffic Light

13. EMS Station / Traffic Light
Sample Programs and use of Abstractions:
Example code using the Ultrasonic Sensor

14. EMS Station / Traffic Light
▣ Students explore how the various sensors in the kit
work and can interact with one another.
▣ Code is created gradually, with experimentation and
testing of various sensor configurations encouraged
throughout the lesson.
▣ Multiple programming teams can work together to
create a network of traffic signals.
▣ Project emphasizes a real-world based problem that
students need to solve.

15. EMS Station / Traffic Light
Student reactions:
“It was fun to build the EMS station.”
“I liked the programming and configuration of the
sensors.”
“I had fun painting the station and the cars.”
“I now understand how multiple sensors can work
together.”

16. EMS Station / Traffic Light
Teacher reactions:
▣ This project practically brings to life a real-world
scenario.
▣ The project is flexible and encourages students to use a
variety of sensors to complete different tasks.
▣ The project is flexible allows for multiple teams to work
together at the same time.
▣ This is a great introduction to the Hummingbird kit.
“It’s FUN and Engaging!”

17. Tonya Lackey
Ski Lift Turnstile:
Students will learn how inputs
from a sensor can be used to
generate a unique ID which is
used to pull information from a
list. Using the information
from the list and conditionals
they then control outputs.

18. Ski Lift Turnstile
Students are tasked to design and build a ski lift
turnstile to verify ski passes and allow skiers to
enter the lift area.
▣ The system will use light sensors to
“read” a barcode off the skier’s ski
pass and generate a binary ID.
▣ The skier’s contact information and ski
pass validation are pulled from an
already generated list.
▣ If the pass is valid, the servo motors
are activated and the turnstile gate
opens.

19. Ski Lift Turnstile
▣ Students begin by connecting 3 light sensors to the
Hummingbird Robot and exploring how to use the light
sensors to generate a unique binary code.
▣ Students review how to convert binary to decimal in
order to pull information from an already generated list
using the item ID
▣ The code must also detect when a skier approaches the
turnstile.

20. Ski Lift Turnstile
Sensor 3 Sensor 2 Sensor 1 Binary Decimal
False False False 000 0
False False True 001 1
False True False 010 2
False True True 011 3
True False False 100 4
True False True 101 5
True True False 110 6
True True True 111 7

21. Ski Lift Turnstile

22. Ski Lift Turnstile
Light Sensors used to generate
binary code:
Conditionals used to check ski pass
validity and control the servo
position motors to open and close
the gate:

23. Ski Lift Turnstile
▣ Students then explore how the position servo motors
can be controlled.
▣ Code is created that will use two servo position motors
to open and close a turnstile gate when a skier’s ski pass
is validated.
▣ The skier is given 15 seconds to enter the ski area before
the gate closes.
▣ IF the skier’s pass is not valid, the system reports back
“Invalid Pass” and the gate remains closed.

24. Ski Lift Turnstile
Student reactions:
“I like building and seeing my code work.”
“The projects get me off the computer and I can really
see the outputs in action.”
“I can show my artistic side.”
“I now have a better appreciation of how things work.”

25. Ski Lift Turnstile
Teacher reactions:
▣ This project is relevant to student’s interests (and the
teacher’s!)
▣ The project can be modified to fit other demographic
groups.
▣ Project is challenging and pulls on a significant amount
of information learned previously in the curriculum.
“It’s FUN and Engaging!”

26. Matt Davis
Railroad Crossing:
Students will learn how inputs from a sensor can
be used by conditionals to control outputs and
generate lists.

27. Railroad Crossing
Students are asked to design and program a
system that will act as a railroad crossing.
▣ The system will use hypersonic sensors to
detect when a train is approaching a crossing.
▣ Lights and sound will be activated and gates
will be lowered using position servo motors.
▣ Time, date, and direction of travel will be added
to a list based on which hypersonic sensor is
triggered.

28. Railroad Crossing
Students begin by connecting a hypersonic sensor to the
Hummingbird Robot and exploring how to measure
distance.
They connect lights and create code that uses conditionals
to make the lights flash when the hypersonic sensor detects
a train is approaching.
There should also be code to make the buzzer on the
Microbit sound at the same time.

30. Railroad Crossing
Students then explore how the position servo motors can
be controlled.
Code is created that will use the servo to close a crossing
gate when a train is detected.
When the ultrasonic sensor detects the train has passed, the
servo motors open the crossing gates and turns off the
lights and buzzer.

31. Railroad Crossing
Based on which hypersonic sensor detects the train, time,
date, and direction of travel will be added to a list that
tracks when the system was activated.

36. Railroad Crossing
Student Reaction:
“I had fun building it and working with people around
me.”
“I learned to code and make new blocks.”
“Learning new stuff through the projects I did.”
“The creativity you can use.”

37. Railroad Crossing
Teacher reaction:
“Too much fun.”

38. EXCITE NEXT STEPS
POTENTIAL FUTURE EXPANSION WILL INCLUDE
UNIVERSITIES, SCHOOLS, AND DISTRICTS NATIONWIDE
COHORT II: ADDING NEW DISTRICTS, SCHOOLS, AND TEACHERS
• O BALTIMORE CITY SCHOOLS (MD)
• O PRINCE GEORGES’ COUNTY SCHOOLS (MD)
• O ALEXANDRIA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS (VA)
• O CHESTERFIELD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS (VA)
ITEEA WILL PROVIDE ONGOING SUPPORT VIA SUMMER
EXCITE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTES

39. EXCITE FURTHER INFORMATION
SHOULD YOU AND YOUR DISTRICT BE INTERESTED
IN WORKING WITH US OR LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAM,
PLEASE CONTACT THE PROJECT DIRECTOR,
TONY GORDON AT EXCITE@TECHLIT.ORG
THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION.
ANY QUESTIONS ……
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ADAPTED BJC CURRICULUM
FOR TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION, VISIT BJC.TECHLIT.ORG