Curriculum Developer (Oakland or NYC - onsite)

The Learn team at Giant Machines, is looking for a passionate Curriculum Developer to create and revise high-school level computer science curriculum for an after-school and weekend program embedded at a partner organization. You’d be joining a small but growing organization with established relationships at Google, the NYC Department of Education, Break Through Tech, and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, as well as several of New York City’s most student-centered schools.

GIANT MACHINES

Giant Machines is a digital product agency based in NYC. We work with clients across a wide spectrum of industries including fintech, healthcare, real estate, insurance, public utilities, and environmental & social impact. Giant Machine’s product approach is lean, user-focused, design forward, and outcomes-driven. Our expertise encompasses design strategy and research, product strategy and management, user experience and visual design, and engineering and technology. Our company is made up of passionate and creative people who bring their unique backgrounds and perspectives to client work and team collaboration. Giant Machines is committed to a thriving society with a focus on racial and social justice, gender equality, and sustainable communities. We foster a culture of learning and awareness, facilitate group sessions to create a space for discussion and sharing, and align ourselves with client organizations, partners, and community outreach efforts that share our mission.

This role creates, updates and manages the process for program curriculum design. Curriculum developers take inventory of current offerings and make necessary changes and updates as needed while also exploring new and exciting content to teach students.

• Work with the program team to advise on existing content and iterate and refine the core curriculum to improve engagement, effectiveness and overall quality.
• Solicit, consider and implement feedback from instructional coaches on existing content
• Use best practices to identify and implement improvements on the curriculum
• Develop a plan for transferring project-based computer science curriculum modules onto an online platform; parts of the curriculum include:
• Modular lesson plans and assessments
• Develop, as needed, additional learning experiences to achieve programmatic goals that align with the experience guidelines that focus on project-based web and mobile app development and interactive computational art and making. This process includes:
• Project design/selection, building sample project, creating pseudo code, designing coach/engineer materials, testing/training with coaches, observation, facilitating reflections and iterating.
• Curriculum includes weekly lesson plans, coaches guide, weekly learning objectives and an assessment plan.
• Key areas include but are not limited to:
• Curriculum Design
• Curriculum Maintenance
• Program Design Planning
• Reviewing Volunteer created content

As Curriculum Developer, you will join an energetic team devoted to increasing access and exposure to Computer Science to underrepresented communities. Our curriculum consists of learning experiences for students ages 13 -18, designed to increase their interest, confidence and core skills required to pursue a career in Computer Science. This role will be responsible for iterating on and refining our curriculum to improve engagement, effectiveness, and alignment with the programmatic goals and honing it for online consumption on our platform.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Advise on existing content and iterate and refine the core curriculum to improve engagement, effectiveness and overall quality.
• Solicit, consider and implement feedback from instructional coaches on existing content
• Use best practices to identify and implement improvements on the curriculum
• Develop a plan for transferring project-based computer science curriculum modules onto an online platform; parts of the curriculum include:
• Modular lesson plans and assessments
• Develop, as needed, additional learning experiences to achieve programmatic goals that align with the experience guidelines that focus on project-based web and mobile app development and interactive computational art and making. This process includes:
• Project design/selection, building sample project, creating pseudo code, designing coach/engineer materials, testing/training with coaches, observation, facilitating reflections and iterating.
• Curriculum includes weekly lesson plans, coaches guide, weekly learning objectives and an assessment plan.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, related engineering field, or equivalent experience; OR Bachelor's degree in Education/Instructional Design with a STEM focus
• Experience writing culturally relevant lesson plans and projects for online consumption, especially for high school.
• Thorough knowledge of object-oriented programming principles and practical knowledge of designing and developing computer programs.
• Knowledge with Processing / P5js, Arduino, HTML, CSS, JS, Node, Java, Android, web app and mobile app development best practices.
• Culturally oriented, experienced in engaging with underrepresented populations and writing culturally relevant lesson plans and projects.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience expanding or growing online education programs.
• Experience with teaching (incl. teaching assistant) "Intro to Programming" or developing “Intro to Programming” courses. Experience with high school is also a plus.
• Experience with makerspaces, tinkering, innovation labs, design-thinking, and project-based learning.
• Familiarity with constructivist pedagogy

NY Transparency Law: $80,000 - $100,000, commensurate with experience

Recruitment Agencies: Giant Machines does not accept unsolicited agency resumes and will not be held responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.