Bootstrap teaches students to program their own video games in an algebraic programming language, exposing them to key math concepts. Middle- and high-school teachers around the country have implemented the curriculum as a one-month module, a weekly activity or an after school program.
WeTeach_CS Certification Prep will provide an overview of the educator competencies required of all teachers to become certified in Grades 8-12 Computer Science. This certification is necessary to teach courses such as Computer Science I, II or III, Fundamentals of Computer Science, or AP Computer Science A. Course instructors will address several competencies in depth and link attendees to additional resources that will help to prepare them to challenge the CS certification test.
Learn about a global opportunity to use CAD software and 3D printers to make a difference in the lives of all involved–recipients, students, and teachers. We will share how schools can become active participants/contributors in the E-Nable organization which provides low-cost 3D printed prosthetics to children in need.
Despite the world-wide underrepresentation of women, at Harvey Mudd College 40% of CS majors are women. At UC Berkeley, the percentage of CS majors who are women has nearly doubled in the last 10 years. Professor Colleen Lewis has participated in designing, implementing, and evaluating diversity initiatives at both institutions. She will discuss how the interventions at each institution could be translated for use in K-12 to remove structural and cultural barriers to students’ access to CS.
In 1946 six brilliant young women programmed ENIAC, the world’s first all-electronic, programmable computer as part of a secret US Army WWII project. They programmed a ballistics trajectory calculus equation without programming languages (for none existed) and it worked perfectly. Yet when ENIAC was unveiled to the press and public in 1946, the women were never introduced. They became invisible.
Featuring Movietone footage of the 1940s and never-before-seen interviews with the ENIAC Programmers, “The Computers” is a beautifully-produced 20-minute documentary designed to fit into classroom schedules for high schools and middle schools. It is the powerful story lost for 70 years of the founding of computing technologies we cannot live without— by six incredible young women everyone should know!
Is Computational Thinking (CT) an old idea in a new package or a profoundly 21st Century creation? This session will explore the different definitions of CT, some of the driving forces behind it, and how these forces are impacting curriculum design and classroom practice. It will look at the challenges of implementing CT into the classroom and share some new Google resources that might make this easier. We will also discuss how the AP CSA and CSP courses complement each other and their role and impact in expanding and diversifying students studying computer science.
This hands on workshop will help teachers navigate DonorsChoose.org, a website that allows teachers to request the materials they need for the classroom. Those requests are then funded by both citizen and corporate donors. Teachers will be guided through the process, and then provided with “insider” tips on how to guarantee their project will be funded thanks to the numerous funding opportunities that are available. Bring a laptop and put your creative hats on!
Current efforts to develop computing courses face difficult choices between equity and scale. Opt-in classes attract narrow student populations, but mandating CS requires vast resources. Bootstrap is a curricular module which integrates CS and algebraic content through programming video games. The first module can be delivered by math teachers inside existing, mainstream math classes, and later modules bridge both teachers and students toward AP-level concepts. This session illustrates Bootstrap’s research-backed approach to program design, in which students use rigorous software engineering techniques to create videogames while reinforcing algebra. Participants will receive hands-on exposure to many activities in the Bootstrap curriculum.
High school computer science teachers are aware of the exciting careers available for their students, but rarely actively recruit female students into their classes to get them started in those careers. The absence of girls in CS classes is often due to misconceptions and a sense that girls do not belong. This presentation provides a useful, usable structure and resources for developing plans and messages to attract girls into high school CS classes. Attendees will learn to create successful approaches to attract girls and keep track of their results. Participants will receive free, research-based resources from the National Center for Women & IT.
Come learn how to host FREE Code.org computer science workshops provided by Changing Expectations. At the workshops, FREE CPEs for educator re-certification, Code.org printed curriculum, swag, CS resources, unplugged activity supplies, and teacher/student online accounts needed to teach computer science are provided at no cost. Changing Expectations also provides follow-up support for teachers through afterschool, Saturday, school break, and summer coding camps, which integrate web development, DASH robotics, and Arduino electronics projects.
Your students loved Hour of Code, but now what? This session will give you an in-depth look into the world of advanced drag-and-drop coding. We will make a calculator program in Scratch, learn the fundamentals of recursion in Lightbot, and explore the Code.org courses. Additionally, we will dive into Code.org’s newest offering, App Lab, which seamlessly bridges drag-and-drop coding with written lines of JavaScript.
Every elementary school in Spring Branch ISD has a 6-pack of Bee-Bots and software to practice spelling and math skills by coding a floor robot with 4 simple commands. Building Connections & Understanding + Real-world Application is a mathematics practice to prepare students to use patterns and relationships to discover the connections between mathematical concepts and their application to real-world models. Bee-Bots can help build those connections! Come Dance with the Bees and See how you can use these and other unplugged activities to build computational thinking skills in the lower grades.
I am presenting a overview of the creation of Mods in the popular video game Minecraft in order to generate interest in programming and Computer Science in general. The presentation will emphasize the use of Eclipse as a Java IDE and will include how to set up Forge and the entire development environment. The presentation is specific to PC and will require the download and installation of the Forge API as well as the latest version of the Eclipse development environment. This is a brief overview based on my TCEA workshop but will still enable the instructor to set up a Minecraft modding environment and be able to begin the process of teaching modding to generate interest in High School Computer Science
In this session the participants will learn about MIT App Inventor. App Inventor is a free programming environment to create Android apps. App Inventor is mainly geared towards high school and middle school students who are exploring computing and programming perhaps for the first time. In this session teachers will be introduced to the basic App Inventor interface, the various components that can be added to an app, and the main app creation workflow. This session will also briefly discuss various App Inventor related curriculum resources that teachers can use in their classroom.
Now that you have passed the test and earned your CS 8-12 Certification, it is time to prepare to teach computer science in the classroom! Come and learn some helpful hints, useful tips, and valuable advice from someone who has done this for over 20 years and knows the ropes. Learn about what to do and what not to do in the classroom, as well as learn about various curriculum packages suitable and available for use.8:00 – 9:30 AM Registration & Coffee
9:30 – 10:30 AM Layering Life: Adventures in 3D Printing, Year 1
10:45 – 11:45 AM Breakouts – SESSION 1
11:45 AM – 1:00 PM Lunch and Student Playground
1:00 – 2:00 PM Breakouts – SESSION 2
2:15 – 3:15 PM Breakouts – SESSION 3
3:30 – 4:30 PM Expanding access to CS: Why and How
8:00 – 8:30 AM Coffee and networking
8:30 – 9:30 AM Panel Discussion — WeTeach_CS: Lessons Learned from Successful Business Partnerships
9:45 – 10:45 AM Breakouts – SESSION 4
11:00 AM – 12:00 pM Breakouts – SESSION 5
12:00 – 1:30 PM Lunch & Vendors
1:45 – 3:45 PM Breakouts – SESSION 6
4:00 – 5:00 PM The Computers: The Remarkable Story of the ENIAC Programmers – Screening and Q&A
8:00 – 8:30 AM Coffee and networking
8:30 – 9:30 AM Computational Thinking as a 21st Century Skill
9:45 – 10:45 AM Breakouts – SESSION 7
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Breakouts – SESSION 8
12:00 – 1:30 PM Lunch & Vendors
1:45 – 3:15 PM Securing resources to bring STEM instruction to the next level
