Implement 4 Impact
Implement for Impact (I4I) is a series of four workshops that were designed for the CS4NorCal research project. The I4I workshop series served as a means to strengthen a CS pathway using specific pedagogical approaches that also prepare students for college and career.
I4I includes a toolkit for offering a 24-hour professional learning workshop that can be paired with the project's Computer Science Integration for a year-long experience.
This toolkit is designed to support professional learning practitioners who are interested in delivering these high-quality workshops to educators. Featuring four adaptable workshops-- Project-based Learning, Agile Project Management, Emerging Computer Science Concepts, and Showcasing Student Work--this toolkit offers ready-made agendas, resources, and research-based strategies.
For professional learning practitioners, this article examines the evolution of the Implement for Impact series as a case study in designing and adapting professional development for a specific, high-need context. It details an iterative redesign that significantly improved participant retention - a common challenge in sustained professional learning - and highlights key outcomes, including consistently high educator satisfaction and a statistically significant positive effect on student science achievement. The findings present a promising and replicable framework for building local capacity that will be of interest not only to professional learning practitioners but also to school leaders, regional intermediaries and county offices of education, and public funders they support. By grounding the model in classroom-ready practices like PBL and real-world applications, this work offers a sustainable approach to bridging the access gap in computer science education.