#cs4all

[leveluptime-blog1]

Learning to multiply with code! #coding #cs4all #stemEd #stemeducation #STEM #scratch #scratchprogramming https://www.instagram.com/p/B35Ny1whdWu/?igshid=a050rub5h4zi

[gradgrinds2]

Teaching Computational Thinking with Stories of Electricity

Kids loves drama. Don't fight it; embrace it. I recently developed this prototype project for elementary school students where they learn about electrical engineering through narrative. Using a fantastic kid-friendly circuit board called Snap Circuits, kids are encouraged to personify electricity and to embrace the journey it takes around the board. If you try it in your classroom, or riff ons other K-12 computers science ideas here, message me. I'd love to see.

Project

Stories of Electricity

Description

How electricity operates is an important part of computer science because computers, at their foundation, run on rapid pulses of electricity. The logic of electrical engineering is inseparable from the logic of computers. In this activity, students work with Snap Circuits in order to safely explore how electrical circuits operate. They will work independently and in groups to build circuits and to write “stories of electricity” that use descriptive narrative writing to explain just how electricity, like a character on an adventure, navigates the circuit, what it does at important junctions, and why.

Guiding Questions

Where does the electrical current start and end its journey? What does the electricity do each time the circuit board pieces change color?   When the circuit doesn’t work as expected, what are the possible reasons for that? What “trouble” might electricity be running into? Read the full article

[kswilkens]

K-8 Computer Science Cohort Playdate

I just got back from the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) Conference where computer science was a big topic. I have been involved with VSTE for many years and looking back I can see that in 2017 there were 5 CS-related sessions, in 2018 there were 11 and this year there were 21. I helped organize one of these sessions - the K-8 Computer Science Cohort Playdate. The K-8 CS Cohort is on a mission to integrate computer science into the curriculum. This group came together at the CS Institute this past summer and includes teachers and technology coordinators from public and private schools around the state. The group is being facilitated by Jennie Chiu of UVA Curry School of Education and myself. We’ve been sharing ideas, having playdates to try out different learning platforms and experimenting in our classrooms.

The cohort session facilitators included:

Jennie Chiu - UVA Curry School of Education

Kim Wilkens - St. Anne's-Belfield School

Jo Crowder - Albemarle County Public Schools

Goldy Purcell - Campbell County Public Schools

Karen Canfield - Campbell County Public Schools

Kim Arrington - Campbell County Public Schools

Anne Deane - Tandem Friends School

Michelle Dunphy - Prince Williams County Public Schools

During the session, we shared out examples of CS integration work we’ve been doing in elementary and middle school, before, during and after school. We also brought lots of fun CS-related learning platforms for participants to try out like micro:bit, Hummingbird robotics, Spheros, drones, Ozobots, Turing Tumble, BeeBots, Strawbees and Binary Bracelets.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to share the CS work are doing at St. Anne's-Belfield School, to be a part of a community of educators passionate about CS education and to see the ripple effects we are having in CS education throughout the state! You can find resources from the session at bit.ly/k8cscohort. If you interested in joining the cohort, you can contact me and mark your calendar now for the 2020 CS Institute the week of July 6.

[reggaesue]

Nice view here! Computer Science Teacher’s Association Meet up on Roosevelt Island! Excited to see Cornell Tech’s new campus! Time to network! #teacher #computerscience #csta #nycteacher #stem #sepjrnyc #nycstem #csnyc #cs4all (at Cornell Tech)

[memmil]

T-shirt Graphics for Maker Week.

[piuswong]

(The K12 Engineering Education Podcast)

Casey Lamb and Roger Horton work with the nonprofit organization Schools That Can.  Schools That Can aims to promote real-world learning in education, with particular experience fostering real-world learning for younger students. This takes many forms, including collaborating with industry, teaching design thinking, and embracing the maker movement. Casey and Roger joined the podcast to talk about their National Forum on real-world learning in the digital age, as well as how real-world learning is evolving today.

Roger is the Director of Maker Programs with Schools That Can, as well as the lead practitioner on a National Science Foundation project for the organization. He started his career as a Navy engineer, led youth employment training programs in developing countries, and taught Global History and Engineering Design at EPIC North High School in Queens, an STC network school.

Casey is Chief Operating Officer for Schools That Can, and she co-authored the Schools That Can Real-World Learning Rubric for educators, helped found the Transforming Learning Collaborative, alongside partners at Da Vinci Schools and Next Generation Learning Challenges.

 Related to this episode:  

• Schools That Can: https://www.schoolsthatcan.org/

• National Forum in NYC: https://www.schoolsthatcan.org/2020-stc-forum/

• Rubric for real-world learning: https://www.schoolsthatcan.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/RWL_Rubric.pdf

• MC2 STEM High School in Cleveland: https://www.mc2stemhighschool.org/

• American Society of Civil Engineers: https://www.asce.org/

• Next Generation Science Standards adoption across states: https://ngss.nsta.org/about.aspx

• SOLE – Self-organized learning environment app for inquiry-based learning aligned to standards: https://startsole.org/

• Nepris app to connect experts to classrooms: https://www.nepris.com/home/v4

• CommunityShare, to connect teachers locally to industry: https://www.communityshare.us/

• Engineering is Elementary: https://www.eie.org/

• Penn Graduate School project-based learning certificate: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/academics/professional-learning/project-based-learning-certificate

• CS4All in NYC: http://cs4all.nyc/

• John Dewey (1859-1952), educator: https://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/john.html

 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net.  Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible.  The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

[eduappsandmore]

#TeacherCon Day Three with @codeorg @teachcode

#TeacherCon Day Three with @codeorg @teachcode

Wednesday… Hump Day. The day that folks at professional development or teacher conferences SHOULD really feel the drain of being out of their element… out of their own beds… their normal routines. Energy is usually down. As you can see below, that is certainly not the case at TeacherCon! (more…)

[tech-girls]

Spotlight: Niharika Vattikonda

Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Niharika Vattikonda. She is a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and she’s passionate about all things at the intersection of computer science and policy. Niharika is the founder and CEO of Teens Transforming Technology, a student-run nonprofit organization based in Northern Virginia, that aims to inspire the next generation of coders while expanding the diversity in computer science.

How do you work with technology today? I’ve always focused on incorporating technology in the research I work on, whether it be in determining the effects of varied Vitamin B12 levels on the cognitive performance of planaria (model organisms for human associative learning) or in simulating the electromagnetic radiation produced by cell phones and determining the effect of that on human intestinal bacteria. In these projects, I’ve used technology to analyze the results of experiments as well as create the experimental setting itself, such as simulating cellular electromagnetic radiation or producing identical stimuli for the planaria to react to. Beyond working with technology, I love to help younger students, especially girls and minorities, explore the creative potential of technology.

What drives your interest in technology? I love technology because the applications are infinite. Every development we make affects not just the field of computer science, but it has rippling effects through all other parts of our society, and because the effects of advances in technology are so potent and immediate, my work directly impacts my community along with dozens across the country and the world. Whether it be physics or politics, our society is increasingly relying on technology, and to be part of this revolution and integrate technology with the research I’m working on in animal sciences or microbiology, for example, enables me to impact those fields in a way that couldn’t have been possible. Because we’re working to create something new, a society completely reliant on technology, there is endless space for innovation, which emphasizes the role of creativity paired with the necessary logical thinking in technology.

What do you remember about your first coding experience? My first experience with coding was with HTML/CSS in middle school - one of my teachers recommended that I try out Codecademy in my free time, and I was hooked. Creating websites from a few lines of code was addicting, and the more CSS selectors and properties I found, or the more HTML elements I learned, I could make more and more complex websites to play around with. And when I finally discovered Javascript after a few weeks, the possibilities for me became endless.

Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology? As a child, I sometimes took it for granted that women were in technology; both of my parents worked in IT, and all of our female family friends worked in IT, or in STEM to a greater degree. However, I was shocked that, in Northern Virginia, an area dominated by the IT industry, my year (Class of 2018) at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was less than 40% female. While the ratio of girls to boys in my required Foundations of Computer Science class paralleled the school’s overall ratio, the number of girls in any non-required CS classes and activities dropped sharply after, and I was the only girl from my year in my AP Computer Science class. In math classes, I found that the statistics were no better: I was the only sophomore girl in my AP Calculus BC class the year after. In my past three years at Thomas Jefferson, while I’ve been blessed with myriad opportunities in STEM, and particularly in computer science, I’ve always wondered what my experiences would have been like if there were more girls in higher-level math and computer science classes. This question is what drove me to establish Teens Transforming Technology, in which I inspire young girls and minorities, to pursue computer science at an early age, because I don’t want any of them to feel that they aren’t in place or can’t handle technology-related fields. I hope that we can eventually get to a point where our representation in every field parallels the representation in the general population, because without diversity in technology, we won’t be able to build solutions that address everyone’s needs and we won’t be able to consider all sides of any issue at hand.

Who inspires you to pursue your passion? Why? The students. When I see my students connect with computer science, when the lightbulb goes off inside their heads and they finally figure out where the missing semicolon was - I think those are some of the moments that inspire me the most. When I see one of my fourth-graders go from learning what a for-loop is to quickly designing her own game to play on her phone or on her computer or when I hear a parent tell me that their student could not be pried away from Codecademy or MIT AppInventor, I’m always thrilled to see how creative my students are in using code to solve the problems they find in their communities. I meet dozens of parents who were not aware of what an impact computer science can have on their child’s future, and after our programs, I always love to see them ready to continue fostering their child’s love of coding at home and in their education. Although the statistics for girls and minorities in computer science look bleak right now, every student impacted by our programs has the potential to change those statistics, if even by a little bit, and that progress is what keeps me going.

What most excites you about the future of technology? I am a true politics geek, so for me, I think using technology to learn more about the electorate is one of the most interesting fields possible. We now have the ability for politicians to directly engage with their constituents, and I’d like to see how technology changes our views of what voters feel about the issues, and which issues they are most concerned about, so that our politicians can adjust their perceptions while in office. Constituents are already expressing their opinions on social media, primarily Twitter and Facebook, and if our politicians are able to harness this data and use it to make informed decisions while in office, our government will be much more efficient than if voters are only primarily consulted during the elections themselves. But beyond the advanced analysis of the electorate, I think our government is undergoing a technological revolution, and it’s something that I hope to be a part of in my career.

[wearekolorkoded]

#KolorfulTravels :  Why You Should Let #GHC17 Change Your Life...

Last October, I was blessed to score a scholarship courtesy of the Anita Borg Institute to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Houston, Texas. #GHC16 is a premiere event featuring a career fair including the most recognizable brands around, the best science and engineering schools in the US, and the most promising start ups. Also included in the celebration's line up were sessions hosted by the most well known women tech professionals, students, and researchers, speaking on the present and future of computing. Least to say, I was elated to be chosen, not just to participate but to also win a scholarship to attend. From the jump, my four day journey was an excellent, business card packed adventure and here are some reasons for you to attend this October as the celebration takes over Orlando, Florida. 

The speakers were all phenomenal and I don't mean the keynote only. From hearing Ginni Rometty discuss her ascent from engineering student to CEO and chair woman of IBM, to Dr. Latanya Sweeney of Harvard discussing the future of data policy and how her research has influenced decisions at the Federal Trade Commission, on through great sessions headed up by names I've fangirled over on social media, I was not disappointed at all with the speaker line up. Make sure you pack a notebook or two with you in order to catch all of the gems these speakers drop. 

Don't leave behind your business cards, resume, or anything that speaks to your abilities as an engineer. This was an honest mistake I made. I didn't think that there would be much need for resumes considering I had several interviews lined up and had filled out a ton of online pre-screening applications for different companies. Now, I can honestly attest to the power behind an in person resume exchange and how it exponentially increases your chances of landing interviews at events like this. They work as perfect closers to conversations with recruiters about where you see yourself in their companies and how your skills best fit their needs 

Speaking of skills as an engineer, if you're looking to impress those on the software side of things, DON’T HESITATE TO BRUSH UP ON YOUR CODING SKILLS! I embarrassed myself so much with this one. I talked my way into an on the spot coding interview with a start up, and low and behold, I was asked to reverse a string inplace. Now as simple as this procedure is (see this tutorial for clarity), my nerves and not having to code in-depth for the better part of a year got to me. After the most excruciating 13 minutes of my life, my recruiter finally let me off the hook to go. Embarrassment aside, it never hurts to look up common algorithms and code interview questions before an event like this and to practice them! 

This segues to my next point, try not to allow earlier poor performances to influence your ones later on. Hours after the string-gate, one of my pre booked interviews was set to occur and I was a nervous wreck. I worried about them bringing up algorithms I couldn't recall and me not being able to put on a "please believe that I truly know what I'm doing" type of veneer, but I walked in with a freshly printed resume and the resolve that if this one didn’t go well, I'd come back next year swinging. Fortunately, this one was behavioral and experienced based. I was asked about things I've worked on, courses I've taken and more questions I was actually prepared to answer. Still after all handshakes were done, I was worried about the outcome. 

Additionally, be sure to attend the networking events/parties. Aside from the great food and drinks and the chance to say you crashed a "Google/Amazon/Twitter./etc..." bash, you can get true one on one networking with employees and movers and shakers at some of the top tech names in the world.  Another great aspect about GHC is that for all of the work you are putting in to get on the radar of these companies, they are also putting in the work to get you to join their teams. Don't let these opportunities to interview the companies for your sake, in a more informal setting pass you by. It's at functions like these, you get a feel for the company culture, get to know your possible future coworkers, and details on what makes company worth working for in your eyes. 

In the midst of all that networking and eating, don't forget to learn something new. Between what are arguably the world's best career fair and company parties, excellent sessions on everything from AI to gaming, to HPC's, to graduate school choice are abound at GHC. Getting a close up glimpse into cutting edge research, work paradigms, and other areas in computing from the world's leading experts in the field is truly not an opportunity to miss.

The extremely inclusive environment will make you feel so safe, secure, and welcome. All genders, backgrounds, and abilities are welcome at GHC. From free on site childcare, to gender neutral bathrooms, to the encouragement to travel through the city in groups for safety, there was never a moment at GHC where I felt at risk or left out. This was truly an event for ALL techies. 

Finally, make sure that you enjoy yourself. I loved GHC and it's definitely an event I look forward to returning to in the coming years. Hopefully with the internship I scored in Silicon Valley this summer courtesy of that behavioral based interview I stressed over, I will one day return as a recruiter and/or speaker. 

[leveluptime-blog1]

This year we are trying out a different approach! Providing students with larger visuals of their group responsibilities, the concepts of the game of the day, and the blocks of codes! #coding #stem #steam #stemEd #stemeducation #autism #autismcommunity #dirfloortime #dir #floortime #gamedevelopment #gamedesign #cs4all #computerscience #educationaltechnology #edtech https://www.instagram.com/p/B3R4JpZBhpV/?igshid=asgyn5bhr1oe

[gradgrinds2]

Just Blaze: Music Icon and Coding Nerd?

While watching the Netlix show Rapture about Just Blaze's rise in the music industry, I was surprised to learn his father was a computer scientist who passed on his passion for hardware, software, and creativity to his son. Blaze explains in a 2013 article just how his love of computers sent him into another orbit early in his career: "It took a lot of time, a lot of trial and error, and quite a bit of money, but I was able to fashion my own Pro Tools rig that ran off an old Powerbook," explained Just. "I used to roll it into sessions and engineers would look at me like I was from another planet because nobody had anything like this in New York, or in the business, at all.” I'd love to see what new possibilities emerge in K-12 computer science if we were to do more to promote coding as a method of creativity and critical thinking across subjects--including music class. Read the full article

[kswilkens]

#SIGCSE2017 Reflections

Mark Sherriff, UVA CS professor, recommended SIGCSE to Zach and I as a great opportunity to tap into CS education at it’s best and he wasn’t wrong. It’s been awhile since I’ve been “just an attendee” at a conference and I must admit I really enjoyed the less stress, more learning opportunity feeling. For me the experience started off on just the right note with Gail Chapman’s keynote. She’s one of my CS edu heroines as a part of Exploring Computer Science. I share many hopes for the future of CS education and frustrations with its current reality with Gail. Here are some thoughts from her talk that resonated with me:

Learning is a uniquely personal experience. How we teach matters. Students need choice of the context, not just the interest of the teacher.

Tool after tool, language after language - what do I remember, I remember how to solve problems.

Rigor is often equated with harder code, teaching the same thing in a different language. It should be about solving problems.

Whether students build it or not, they need to engage in conversations about how tech is affecting their lives.

To date, CS has not been the great equalizer we hoped it would be. Providing new tools and not changing what we teach, just perpetuates inequities.

Make CS required and we think we’re done. It’s not enough to provide access, it’s about what happens in those classes, whose voices are we listening to.

We don’t have any idea of where CS will be in 20 years, not even 5 years.

Therefore, we continue to have a chicken & egg problem, how can you teach it well, if you don’t know what it is?

CSK8

A Literature Review through the Lens of Computer Science Learning Goals

This literature review compared CS learning goals that have been theorized as important vs. what is actually being done by students in K-8 classrooms.

Matched goals:

implementing code - natural language to coding language

evaluating solutions - efficiency

matching problems to solutions - identifying patterns & algorithms

code reading - interpreting

abstracting away details 

conditionals and flow of control

loops

variables, data structure & input

Unmatched goals:

designing solutions

using computational tools

matching problems to devices

To me the matched vs. unmatched goals could also relate to standalone CS vs. integrated/applied CS education. The unmatched goals are also the more open-ended ones that I think increase student engagement, but are more challenging to assess.

Arts Coding for Social Good: A Pilot Project for Middle-School Outreach

A group of students at Grinnell College wanted to explore whether introducing CS early to underrepresented students would increase their self-efficacy towards computing. They created a summer camp to explore this question. What they learned after their first year:

making tech camp more inclusive - offer early drop-off & late pick-up, low fee/subsidize, lunch & snacks included, all tools freely available

tech camp surprises? kids have opinions & want to share; some kids just want to code; rename code camp because it limits girls interest

CSDiversity

Diversity Barriers in K–12 Computer Science Education

What are some barriers?

learning curve, accessibility, structural change in school

interest in CS is correlated with teacher/parent recommendation, confidence & envisioning a job in CS

twice as many girls as boys say they are NOT AT ALL interested in studying CS

black & hispanic students are more likely to learn CS outside of the classroom in after-school clubs or groups

31% of girls say they NEVER see someone in the media doing CS who represents them

What are some barrier interventions:

move from lecture to active learning

culturally responsive teaching through POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning)

using browser-based computing tools is important for equity

ask students to reflect on their work & to give you feedback on which assignments resonate with them

There are many awesome resources shared in the TIDES: Teaching to Increase for Diversity & Equity in STEM presentation. Unfortunately this program is no longer running.

CS4All

Mitch Resnick, another CS edu hero of mine, shared the impact of Seymour Papert’s legacy on the work at the MIT Media Lab, Lego Education & beyond.

Interested in Class, but Not in the Hallway

What are the goals for #CS4All?

program implementation

teacher training

student tracking

longitudinal lens

student assessment

How student interest impacts CS edu?

interest is not a binary switch - situational interest (prompted by a place or environment) & individual interest (brought into environment by individual)

within there is triggered interest (engagement of a person with the domain) & sustained interest (ongoing, long-term seeking of activities over time)

move from triggered interest to more sustained individual interest

Designing and Developing A Modern K–12 CS Framework

#CS4All is at it’s heart, an education reform movement

why do I have to learn this (loops, conditions, fill-in-the blank standard)? the K-12 CS framework provides the answer

diversity is built into the framework

How to Plan & Run Effective Teacher Professional Development Finally on Saturday afternoon, I attended a train-the-trainer workshop facilitated by Barbara Ericsson (another CS heroine) & Ria Galanos (a new CS heroine). They provided a wealth of information in an easily digestible format. The timing couldn’t be better as we prepare to launch Learn to Learn IV: CS Institute this summer at STAB.

It was also fun to meet some folks in person who inspire me on twitter: @DuPriestMath (CS educator, read her SIGCSE reflections), @lsudol (CS edu advocate), @zgalant (co-founder of @CodeHS), & @MrYongpradit (Chief Academy Office at code.org).

[reggaesue]

I love how eager my students are to use 21st century tools. They love learning by doing. A hands on approach is always best! I can’t wait to see what they create using @buncee! Our 5th grade creating fabulous presentations using Buncee! #cs #sepjr #cs4all #nycschools PS254_D22K @District22BKNY @NYCSchools @nwoods @sepjrnyc @SMontaperto @DOEChancellor  @PS254_D22K  @BeExtraordinary #ChampionsForChildren #ThisIsTheWork (at Ps 254 Dag Hammarskjold) https://www.instagram.com/p/BppgXkUFEA9VRIf6hkfjgPSUs1eGFzg7SJLCro0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1w6yh0cvsfrno

[pajarosparadisos]

Great start to our annual #enrichmentweek // Using #arduino and #sensors to help us #garden and grow healthy food Hopefully we'll be able to dig our #rooftop #greenhouse out of the #blizzard2017 #sep #sepnyc #virtualgarden #makerbot #cs4all #nyc #softwareengineering @cs4nyc @nyccte @innovation_hs_ @arduino.cc (at East Harlem)

[lovemyvidcode]

We're excited to announce that we're joining the PledgeCents Twitter chat this Wednesday March 15 @ 8pm EST. Join us with the hashtag #PCeduchat on Twitter! #CSforAll #pblearning #edtech #K12 #CS4All # TwitterChat #computerscience #csed #cseducation

[momofallcapes]

Building circuits... thanks to our aunt @alexsays_hi we can do cool things with a couple AA batteries and some easy to read instructions... 👩🏽‍🏭👩🏽‍🔬👩🏽‍💻 #girlsimSTEM #STEAM #STEM #CS4all #diversityintech #diversityinstem #stemeducation #STEMed #makered #futureengineer