I don’t usually post job notices, but I was speaking to Dawn Butler from Johns Hopkins University and they are offering a really interesting opportunity for computer science teachers looking for something interesting to do this summer.
The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY) has a sudden opening for a summer computer science teacher in Los Angeles, CA at their site hosted by Loyola Marymount University. It begins immediately and ends July 15. They will provide travel to and from the location, room and board at LMU, and a salary that ranges from $2,040 to $2,940 (depending upon education and teaching experience). A second position from July 15-August 5 is also available at nearby Cal Lutheran University and so the Center is willing to offer employment for the entire summer.
These three-week courses are designed for academically talented students ages 12-16 who took the SAT as 7th or 8th graders and scored at or above the mean for college bound high school seniors. Algebra 1 is a pre-requisite. There are 15 students in a class, and each instructor has a full time teaching assistant, usually a computer science major. Additionally, every instructor is paired with a teaching assistant.
More information about the course is available at: http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/employment/math_cs.html#fcps
Desired qualifications are a bachelor’s degree and experience teaching computer science. Interested candidates should immediately email a resume to ctycarlos @jhu.edu or call him 410-735-6194 for more information. More complete information on the position is available at www.cty.jhu.edu/summer/employment/inst.html
Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

CSTA has issued a new policy brochure that aims to alert local, state, and federal policymakers to the fact that Computer Science education in America sorely needs attention, and provides information to help them convey the need for action.
Among the suggestions for policy makers to help communicate the need to improve computer science education are:
* Emphasizing that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills include computer science and not just using computers across the curriculum
* Asking what state and local school authorities are doing to ensure that students are acquiring the technological skills they need to succeed.
* Encouraging students to pursue computer science careers as an important source of the nation’s leadership and competitiveness in the global economy.
* Explaining how outsourcing technology jobs can be combated by focusing on the education of future workers.
Policy makers are encouraged to assess the future needs of their states and to ensure that schools of education and on-the-job professional development opportunities are adequately preparing computer science teachers. They are also urged to prepare their communities for future opportunities by pointing to the resources of nonprofit groups like CSTA, that provide curriculum models and other supports to computer science teachers.
The brochures are being distributed through organizations representing policy makers, such as the National Governors Association, and through caucuses and committees of the US Congress and state legislatures that oversee technology education.
Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

What is the Project Hoshimi Programming Battle?
The Project Hoshimi Programming Battle is a competition (exclusively for US high school students) that brings together an imaginative background story, comic-style graphics and fun programming challenges allowing students to compete online, with students from all over the country. Student will devise strategies and write code for navigating a team of nanobots through life-saving missions and objectives through a map of the human body.
This is a great opportunity for your students to learn the basics of game programming while further building their programming and problem-solving skills. Students will get the thrill of competing and interacting with students from across the country. We know that as Computer Science teachers, you’re always looking for new ways to get and keep students engaged. Whether they compete or not, your students will have lots of fun and learn a lot about things like algorithms and object-oriented design concepts as they work with the Project Hoshimi SDK.
How does the competition work?
Teams of 1-2 students will write programs in Visual Basic 2005 (VB 2005) or Visual C# 2005 (C# 2005) to create an artificial intelligence strategy using the provided Project Hoshimi Software Development Kit (SDK). Once the submission period opens, teams will submit their entries to be scored and ranked (against other entries). Each team entry will be uploaded to a scoring server that will run the executable (DLL) file. The entries will then be ranked highest to lowest based on the success rate of the nanobots performance of prescribed tasks like evading enemies, collecting objects in the map, and achieving the mission objectives. The competition is open to US high school students 14 to 18 only. Each team must have faculty sponsor from their school.
How can you help your students get started?
The Project Hoshimi Programming Battle presents a great opportunity to teach students about game programming concepts like binary trees and min-max. To make it easier to introduce these concepts, we created a set of Teaching Objects that use the Project Hoshimi SDK. Each Teaching Object includes a technical article on the topic (for background), PowerPoint slides, sample code and exercises. You will be able to find the latest Teaching Objects in the MainFunction Project Hoshimi Resources library. All of these Teaching Objects and the Project Hoshimi SDK are compatible with both the full version of Visual Studio and Visual Basic 2005 Express.
Daryll McDade
[email protected]