The CSTA is pleased to announce the launching of its student poster contest, “We are the Faces of Computing”. For this contest, students are asked to create a poster that highlights the diverse and creative ways in which students do computer science together. Images of students must be included in the poster.
Winners of elementary school, middle school, and high school competitions will receive an iPad for their classroom and have their poster published on the CSTA website. Final posters (in pdf format, no larger than 5 Mb), along with student and teacher names, school, city, and grade-level should be sent to:
[email protected]
by November 1, 2012.
Winners will be notified by email and announced during CS Education Week, beginning December 10, 2012.
Joanna Goode
Chair, Equity Committee

On May 11, the Washington, DC-based group Achieve released its first public draft of the “Next Generation Science Standards” or NGSS. These standards, coupled with the Common Core standards for mathematics are meant to define how states should think about K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Since these standards will ultimately drive what gets taught in science classrooms across the country, the stakes are high.
Computing in the Core (CinC), which runs CSEdWeek, is deeply disappointed that both the math and science standards leave computer science by the wayside. While the math standards are well on their way to being implemented and assessed, Achieve’s new effort on the science standards is still in development, and they need to hear from you about the importance of having real, engaging computer science in these standards.
The development of the NGSS is a state-led process managed by Achieve. The twenty-six participating states and their supporters hope these new K-12 science standards will be “rich in content and practice” and “arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades” to provide students an “internationally benchmarked” science education. CinC and computer science educators argued early on in the process that these standards should reflect the importance of teaching and learning computer science in the country’s elementary, middle and high schools. The draft, while it includes elements of “computational thinking” falls far short of our expectations and does not reflect the needs for students in the digital age. CinC sent Achieve a letter explaining its concerns:
Computing in the Core and its members are committed to changing K-12 computer science education policies in a way that supports exposing more young people to computing in grades K-12 and giving more computer science educators the support they need to teach the crucial discipline. While the NGSS letter and the efforts of CinC members in the standards development movement are good examples of our concerns and actions, voices from the field are important as well. Articulating these messages to Achieve as they gear up for a second iteration of these standards and to local and state leaders during CSEdWeek events are invaluable contributions to the CS cause.
Weigh in with Achieve, explain your concerns to your colleagues, friends and neighbors and ask them to get involved, and plan an event to raises these issues around CSEdWeek this year.
Della Cronin
CSTA Policy Consultant

In recent months the federal government has expressed increasing concern about our cybersecurity, that is, with our ability to protect the complex computing and communications systems needed to protect our citizens and carry out the business of our businesses and indistries. In the coming months, CSTA will be working with the National Security Agency on a project which we hope will increase awareness of this issue and encourage students to take the kinds of courses that could provide them with critical skills and access to careers that can make a critical difference.
Each year, CSTA creates a classroom poster focusing on some key aspect of computer science education and student engagement and this year, in conjunction with CSEdWeek (December 9-15, 2012), we will be releasing a poster focusing on cybereducation. Right now we are in the early design stage but we know that what we would like most to communicate with students is that there is a critical need and they really can help “save the world with their brains”.
The poster should be available by early November and any CSTA individual member (membership is FREE) can request a classroom copy. In addition, programs that are CSTA institutional members (membership is FREE for the first year) can order larger numbers of copies to distribute at events. Announcements will be posted on the CSTA website as soon as the poster is available.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

The CSTA annual CS&IT conference began this morning and it looks as though it will be another spectacular two days of professional development for computer science and IT teachers.
Today is workshop day with four half-day workshops in the morning and another four in the afternoon. So far the reports on the morning workshops have been great and the afternoon seems to be going well.
Tonight is the reception and lab tour hosted by UC Irvine.
Tomorrow is the main conference day beginning in the morning with a dynamic keynote on the current education policy landscape and why it is critical for teachers to begin speaking up and doing effective advocacy and outreach to support computer science education in schools.
During the day there will be 20 more sessions focussing on every possible aspect of computer science education.
And at the end of the day, before the Truly Fabulous Raffle, there will be a mind-blowing keynote by Alex Sutter from Industrial Light and Magic with all kind of graphics and animation sneak peaks from new blockbuster movies.
All of the information about the conference is available on the website at:
www.cstaconference.org
And all of the presenter materials will be posted here after the conference.
If you are here at the conference, send us a tweet on the conference hash tag:
CSIT2012
And if not, please come next year.
Chris Stephenson
Executive Director, CSTA

While many of us, and our students, are frequent users of search engines, how many of us could really call ourselves “power users”, that is, users who can do more than a general search that produces a huge number of hits, most of which are irrelevant?
This week, Google announced that they have opened registration for Power Searching with Google, a free, online, community-based course showcasing search techniques and how you can use them to solve everyday problems. According to Google, this course is “aimed at empowering you to find what you need faster, no matter how you currently use search”.
Power Searching with Google blends the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) learning format pioneered by Stanford and MIT with Google’s social and communication tools. The set of six 50-minute lesson cover diverse topics such as how to search for and read pages written in foreign languages, how to identify the location of a photographed objects, and how to identify a book by its cover.
The lessons are being released daily starting on July 10, 2012, and users can take them according to their own schedules during a two-week window. Each lesson includes interactive activities to practice new skills, and opportunities to connect with others using Google tools such as Google Groups, Moderator and Google+, including Hangouts on Air, where search experts can answer questions on how search works. Googlers will also be on hand during the course period to help and answer questions for anyone who gets stuck.
You can access a more complete description of the course and registration at:
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landing/powersearching.html
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

This month, in UCLA’s Teacher Education Program, 27 pre-service secondary mathematics and science teachers are enrolled in a new course: “Teaching Methodologies for Computer Science”. This new course provides teachers with practical instructional strategies that lead to rich computer science learning communities in middle school and high school classrooms. As is true with the mission of the teacher education program, equity-based teaching practices for effectively teaching culturally diverse learners are focused on throughout the course.
I find this new course to be exciting on many fronts. First, though some of these pre-service teachers may eventually teach Exploring Computer Science or a similar foundational course, most will have teaching assignments that initially include only mathematics or science courses. Through this class, prospective teachers now have an opportunity to experience how computational practices to solving problems can be integrated within science and mathematics subject areas. Also, having this additional group of educators with computer science pedagogical content knowledge at schools can help build more robust computer science programs.
I’m also excited because our collaboration with the Teacher Education program led to a strategy of replacing the traditional “Educational Technology” course that is disconnected from subject area methodologies with this academic methodology course. I think this might be a model for other teacher education programs looking for ways to integrate more computer science methodology content into the curriculum. Simoly replace the general educational technology course.
And lastly, I’m excited about this course because of the ways that pre-service courses can help shape the knowledge and skills of our future teaching colleagues. Traditionally, the computer science education community has relied on in-service professional development programs to build teachers’ repertoires of teaching methodologies particular to computer science. This “catching-up” of knowledge about teaching computing is often too little, too late. In contrast, providing pre-service curricular space to consider the issues of teaching, learning, and assessment in computer science as educators simultaneously develops general pedagogical approaches and culturally responsive teaching practices is an ideal place to begin developing high quality computer science teachers.
The best part of any methodology course is the close relationship to classroom practices.
So, if you could impart some “wisdom of practice” to pre-service computer science teachers, what advice would you give them? What was the most powerful learning experience for you about teaching computer science?
Joanna Goode
CSTA Equity Chair

CSEdWeek is all about the celebration. We celebrate the teachers who share the challenge and the excitement of the discipline with their students, we celebrate the students who, through their study of computer science, are transitioning from passive users and consumers of technology to creators of technology. And we celebrate the great pioneers of computer science such as Grace Murray Hopper (creator of the Cobol programming language) whose birthday falls in this week.
The beauty of CSEdWeek is that there are an infinite number of ways we can celebrate all of these things. One of our CSTA members, Bill Dunklau, sent us a message about how a couple of activities his school has done so far this week.
For Monday, Dec. 5, the school announcements included:
December 5-9 is Computer Science Week, so chosen to honor Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral, US Navy, an early computer pioneer and developer of the first compiler, whose birthday was December 9. Watch the computer science bulletin board for new student programs to be added throughout the week.
For Wednesday, Dec. 7, the announcements included:
In honor of Computer Science Week, December 5-9: Computer Science graduates now get more offers of employment than any other major. “There are many different types of companies that need to hire computer scientists,’ said Mimi Collins. “One computer science grad may have 10 offers. Annabelle Evans graduated as a computer science major from the University of Southern California in 2008. [Annabelle]…now works at Google.” [From SD Times, August 2011.]
Everything we do to celebrate CSEdWeek is important because it celebrates how far we have come and how far our students can go. As Buzz Lightyear said “To infinity and beyond!”
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

All of our preparations have come to this week, the 2nd CS Ed Week, the celebration of Computer Science in K-12 education.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in making this celebration possible including the law makers and leaders within the CS community. Dedicating a week for the celebration of CS Education helps to bring our subject area onto the front lines, giving it the prominence it deserves.
I hope that you have been able to make use of the CS Ed Week website:
http://www.csedweek.org/
and the many activities and ideas listed within the website.
Please feel free to comment here on the activities that you feel worked best for you to spread the word about CS Ed Week in your classes and or school. Share your triumphs and successes with others here so that they can build upon you success.
I look forward to reading about your experiences with CS Ed Week!
Dave Burkhart
CSTA Policy Task Force Chair

As we embark on the week to celebrate CS Education
Let us pause for a moment in order to make mention
Of computer science teachers, our educational heroes
Who do so much more than teach about ones and zeroes.
Our CS teachers go beyond just the bits and bytes
And help to set off in students many, many lights
So that they may explore, make connections and create
And realize that thinking like a computer scientist is great.
Our CS teachers teach students about Problem Solving and HCI
Programming, Data Analysis and Web Design oh my
And in the process students realize that they can do
So much more than Word and typing and Facebook too.
Our CS teachers help students to become computational thinkers,
collaborators, innovators, and persisting tinkerers
Who are breaking down barriers of who does CS
And showing the world that CS is for all of us
So, “Hello world” lets give a salute
To our CS teachers who help us all to really compute!
David Bernier
Program Manager for the Exploring Computer Science Project at UCLA

My heart sank a few weeks ago when Google announced that they would be dropping AppInventor as part of their decision to get rid of Google Labs. Like many of you, I found it to be a great tool for teachers and students alike. I had already been planning many of my workshops around it- not just as ‘a’ tool, but ‘the’ tool for the workshop. Then all of a sudden my plans came to a screeching halt! A bunch of thoughts and questions came to mind such as “What? For Real? How could they?”
So, it should come as no surprise that I was elated, happy, breathing a sigh of relief, jumping for joy, and all round excited to hear that Google had actually given AppInventor to MIT hand it will now become as part of MIT’s Center for Mobile Learning.
Once I got out of joyous stupor, I realized there is something bigger going on here though. AppInventor is a good thing! People like it. And someone(s) were willing to do something about that. There is a community of people who support something and care about something. And we care about you caring about it!
So, we want to hear what you are doing and what some of your favorite AppInventor projects are!
Post below and share the wealth!
Help us make new fans of AppInventor so we can keep it around for many years to come!
Mindy Hart
CSTA At-Large Representative