CSTA at SIGCSE

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Tammy Pirmann

SIGCSE is the annual conference for the special interest group of ACM that is focused on computer science education. It is always a great event, and if you have never attended, you should put it on your radar for next year! CSTA Board Members and Chapter members will be a presence at SIGCSE this year in many different ways.

Here’s where you can find us:

CSTA Booths #116 and 118 in the Exhibitor Hall.

Helping to pull the whole awesome affair together are John Dougherty (CSTA-Phila) and Ria Galanos (CSTA-VA).

Wednesday

Teaching to Diversity in Computer Science from 1:00pm – 4:30pm with Helen Hu (CSTA-UT).

CS Teaching Tips Tip-A-Thon from 1:00pm – 4:00pm with Stephanie Hoeppner (CSTA Board Member) and many others.

Thursday

NSF showcase – Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning in CS with Clif Kussmaul (CSTA-Phila), Helen Hu (CSTA-UT) and Daniel Libby.

Computer Science Principles Curricula: On-the-ground, Adoptable, Adaptable, Approaches to Teaching from 1:45pm – 3:00pm with Owen Astrachan (CSTA-Triangle East), Jeff Gray (CSTA-AL) and others.

Supporting the Computer Science Learning Process from 3:45pm – 5:00pm with Pat Yongpradit (CSTA-MD) and others.

BOF – Computer Science Principles: Expanding the Community from 5:30pm – 6:20pm with Owen Astrachan (CSTA-Triangle East), Fran Trees (CSTA Chapter Liaison), Rich Kick (CSTA-Southern CA) and others.

BOF – What Math is the Right Math for Computing? from 5:30pm – 6:20pm with John Dougherty (CSTA-Phila).

BOF – Teaching Algebra and Computing through Bootstrap and Program by Design from 5:30pm – 6:20pm with Emmanuel Schanzer (CSTA member)

BOF – Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) in Computer Science from 5:30pm – 6:20pm with Clif Kussmaul (CSTA-Phila) and Helen Hu (CSTA-UT) and others.

BOF – Partnering to Promote State-by-State Computing Education Reform from 6:30pm – 7:20pm with Barb Ericson (CSTA-GA).

BOF – Addressing Professional Development Needs for K-12 CS – Working with Your Local CSTA Chapter from 6:30pm – 7:20pm with Dave Reed (CSTA Board Chair-Elect) and Fran Trees (CSTA Chapter Liaison).

Friday

Using POGIL Activities to Teach CS Principles to Diverse Students, a Poster by Helen Hu (CSTA-UT)

A Case Study on Adding Computer Science as a Math Graduation Elective: A Report from the Alabama CS/Mathematics Crosswalk Committee, a Poster by Jeff Gray, et al (CSTA-AL)

Research, Resources and Communities: Informal Ed as a Partner in Computer Science Education, a panel with Irene Lee (CSTA Chair Computational Thinking Task Force) from 10:45am – noon

Papers: Focus on K-12 Professional Development with Chinma Uche (CSTA-CT), Terry Harvey and Lori Pollock (CSTA-DE) and Deepa Muralidhar (CSTA-GA) from 1:45pm – 3:00pm

One-Day Activities for K-12 Face-to-Face Outreach (Panel) on Friday from 3:45pm – 5:00pm. Barb Ericson (CSTA-GA) and Jeff Gray (CSTA-AL) are on the panel.

Perspectives on Adopting and Facilitating Guided Inquiry Learning with Helen Hu (CSTA-UT), Clif Kussmaul (CSTA-Phila) and Deepa Muralidhar (CSTA-GA) from 3:45pm – 5:00pm.

Conducting Educational Research in the Computer Science Classroom: Choosing the Appropriate Research Design to Address your Research Questions from 7:00pm – 10:00pm with Aman Yadav (CSTA Board Member)

How to Plan and Run Summer Computing Camps – Logistics #14 from 7:00pm – 10:00pm with Barb Ericson (CSTA-GA)

Small or Liberal Arts Colleges Adapting to CS2013: Making it Work from 7:00pm – 10:00pm with Dave Reed (CSTA Board Chair-Elect)

The Internet, Creativity and Global Impact: Curriculum Modules from 7:00pm – 10:00pm with Andrew Kuemmel (CSTA-WI) and Rich Kick (CSTA-Southern CA)

Infusing Cooperative Learning into Early Computer Science Courses to Support Improved Engagement from 7:00pm – 10:00pm with Jeff Gray (CSTA-AL), Fran Trees (CSTA Chapter Liaison), Owen Astrachan (CSTA-Triangle East)

Saturday

App Inventor Breakfast is co-hosted by Fred Martin (CSTA Board Member)

Scaling High School Computer Science: Exploring Computer Science and Computer Science Principles from 9:00am – 10:15am with Owen Astrachan (CSTA-Triangle East), Jeff Gray (CSTA-AL), and others.

Decoding CS Principles – A Curriculum from Code.org from 3:00pm – 6:00pm with Baker Franke (CSTA-Chicago) and Pat Yongpradit (CSTA-MD)

Computing and The Super Bowl

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Laura Blankenship

Most people think of sports as the antithesis of computing. Computing is all indoor activity, staring at a screen and sports is outdoors, running around on a field or track and usually involves the use of balls, nets, rackets and other equipment. But modern sports involves a lot of computing power. There’s a ton of CS in just a single game.

Let’s start with the football. While there’s still some hand work involved in making a football, much of the process is done by machines that are calibrated and run by computers. Most manufacturing of any kind today involves specialized robotics to put things together. Designs for the templates and the machines themselves are often made using CAD software. Check out this video and see if you can spot the computing.

Now let’s move on to the field. Fields must be carefully groomed and accurately marked, which is often done by robots or other computerized methods, but what most of us watching at home see is that magic first down line. Creating that line uses a variety of computing tools. First, a 3D model of the field is created, because each field is slightly different. Next, the color of the field is recorded as the shades of green also vary, and the first-down line relies on green-screen technology to work. Camera computers send position information to another computer, where a person basically right-clicks in the correct location to generate the line. Wikipedia has a decent explanation of the process:

Each set of camera encoders on a camera transmits position data to an aggregator box that translates the digital information into modulated audio where it is sent down to the corresponding camera computer in the truck. This data is synchronized with the video from that camera. At the camera computer the camera position data is demodulated back to digital data for use by the program that draws the “yellow line” over the video.

Separately, the chroma-keying computer is told what colors of the field are okay to draw over (basically grass) and that information is sent to the camera computers.

That’s a lot of computation for one line!

The broadcast itself also involves a ton of computing. Nowadays, the SuperBowl is live streamed in addition to being broadcast on regular television. And it’s being streamed for free, so the algorithm to handle that many simultaneous streams is going to be complex. According to the senior VP of digital media for NBC, Rick Cordella, the live Super Bowl stream will be available at variable bit rates ranging between 500 kilobits per second up to 5 megabits per second, delivered as an HLS stream.

Fans in the stadium won’t be able to stream the game, but there is an app available for them, allowing them access to those famous commercials and to different camera angles (http://bit.ly/167zQCA)

For many footballs fans, besides watching the games on television, participating in fantasy football online is a huge part of their interaction with the game. All of that involves some serious programming, using data collected from real games to create the outcomes for the fantasy ones. The fact that there is data to be collected that’s available through an API is of course, another way the game uses computing power. Many teams use that data to improve their performance and select players for the next season.

So while you’re watching the Super Bowl tonight, or watching any sports game, really, think about all the computing power that makes the game possible.

The Certification Committee

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Tammy Pirmann

The Certification Committee is primarily concerned with issues surrounding teacher certification for Computing teachers. Our most recent effort was the publication of the white paper, Bugs in the System: Computer Science Teacher Certification in the U.S.. This was a substantial effort of members from almost every state! You can see the state map that resulted from this work, where each state has a color code based on whether or not that state has a certification for HS, for MS or no certifications at all. One of the criteria is Computer Science as a required course, but not one state had that in 2013.

Currently, we are working on a public response to the Teacher Preparation Regulations being proposed by the U.S. Dept of Education. Public comments close on February 2, 2015.

On our website, you will find the Certification section at the bottom of the left side navigation. We currently have two links, one to the resources which include downloadable PDFs of our two white papers as well as information on a methods course for teacher prep programs. The second link is to an interactive map of the United States. Each state contains answers to three questions: Is Computer Science a required course? Is there a Middle School Computer Science teacher certification? and Is there a High School Computer Science teacher certification? Soon, we will be adding a link to this page to allow our members to self-report changes to these questions for their state. Advocacy for Computer Science education is having an effect on this data, and we would like to keep this information current.

Who is on the Certification Committee?
Chair – Tammy Pirmann
Members – Deborah Seehorn, Aman Yadav, Stephanie Hoeppner, and Lissa Clayborn

Meet The Foos!

Posted on November 17, 2014 by admin

Posted on behalf of Grant Hosford, CEO and Co-Founder of codeSpark

Parents and policy makers are now recognizing the importance of teaching computer science to elementary school kids, especially over the past 18-24 months. However, the tools and games appropriate for kids 5-9 are few in number. codeSpark, a learning game company, has addressed this gap with a game called “The Foos” that teaches core computer science concepts in a cute virtual world.

The Foos is a self-directed game with a free teacher curriculum that covers core concepts like pattern recognition, sequencing, loops and conditionals. The curriculum uses both gameplay in The Foos and “unplugged” activities to teach key lessons. The game has no words, so pre-readers and non-English speakers can play.

For teachers the best part of The Foos is the flexibility it gives you for lesson planning. You can choose to stop game play regularly to drive home specific points or just let the kids play and explore on their own. The game is designed to walk kids down a tightly scaffolded learning path, even if teacher involvement is light.

codeSpark has received some nice recognition lately as the LEGO Foundation recently named codeSpark one of 30 companies Re-imagining Play and Learning. And last week The Foos received an Editor’s Choice award and one of the highest ratings of the year from Children’s Technology Review.

The Foos is free for Hour of Code and can be played on iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and the web. To learn more visit http://thefoos.com. Interested teachers can download free curriculum here – http://thefoos.com/hourofcode/.

Computer Science Reaches Students During Afterschool Clubs

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Irene Lee

Afterschool clubs can be a productive venue to introduce CS activities that enhance the K-12 experience for students. In addition to ventures into school day integration of CS (such as Code.org’s efforts), afterschool programs have many features/affordances that make them a promising venue whether or not CS is offered during the regular school day. In a webinar on Engineering and Computing in Afterschool (Feb 2014), the Afterschool Alliance recently highlighted three afterschool programs that feature computer science and engineering activities: Techbridge in Oakland, CA; Digital Harbor Foundation in Baltimore, MD; and Project GUTS: Growing Up Thinking Scientifically in Santa Fe, NM.

Directors of these programs provided insights into affordances of offering computing and engineering programs during afterschool hours:
– Afterschool programs engage and retain large numbers of students from diverse populations. According to Afterschool Alliance data, 24 percent of African American, 21 percent of Latino, and 16 percent of Native American children attend afterschool programs, above the national average of 15 percent.
– Students have time to build mastery of skills and new technologies. Often in an afterschool setting (that runs from 3pm – 6pm) students will have longer periods of time for project-based work than in a classroom.
– Afterschool programs offer more opportunity to build relationships with parent and guardians.
– STEM professionals and graduate students are often more available to come in or work as facilitators during the afterschool hours (near the end of the work day). Through using science graduate students and/or STEM professionals as mentors and role models, students get exposed to the variety of computing careers that exist. Subsequently, participants gain an increased awareness of career options.
– Afterschool programs can serve as a sandbox for teachers to try different content, approaches and pedagogy. With a less high-stakes environment, teachers have room to explore and learn.

While there are many potential benefits of working within after school hours, one recurring drawback is that afterschool programs do not reach all students and their families. Those who attend afterschool STEM and CS programs are often a self-selected group including many students who already have high STEM and computing interest. To attract a more diverse audience, significant effort needs to be put towards recruitment. For example, Project GUTS’ recruitment of diverse student populations has been achieved through reaching out to the local community at schools. A two-fold recruitment strategy was used. Family CS Nights were offered at a local elementary school to introduce families from underrepresented groups in CS (primarily Hispanic/Latino and low SES) to computer science through hands-on design and build activities in Scratch and StarLogo, and raising awareness of CS as a potential career track for their students. These evening events also served to prime students to look for Project GUTS clubs upon reaching middle schools throughout the city. At local middle schools, information booths were set up and presentations were made at back-to-school nights and school-wide assemblies. Older, near-peer Project GUTS student mentors served as recruiters, and middle school teachers were asked to refer students to Project GUTS. Further discussion of how to bridge from grassroots outreach, approaches to incorporate other methods to share information about CS programs, and resources with parents and students are issues to address in order to improve equity and access to CS programs during afterschool hours.

If others in the CSTA community are interested in or currently offering Afterschool Computer Science programs, we’d love to hear from you!

Irene Lee
CSTA Computational Thinking Task Force Chair
CSTA K-8 Task Force Member

First Week Activity

Posted on August 15, 2014 by admin

Ever wish you had a set of activities for the first week of school to excite your students early on? There is a wonderful set of exercises that can be found at http://introcomputing.org/. These exercises were created by Nick Parlante based on his Stanford CS101 course.

These exercises work very well in introductory programming courses. Very little lecture time is needed as the exercises are written in a self-guided, interactive format.

My students most enjoy the “Digital Images” section. Here, students are guided through exercises where the ultimate product is a photo of the student superimposed onto another photo, using “bluescreen” techniques.

For example, given a photo of a stop sign and a photo of leaves, if all the red pixels in the photo of the stop sign are replaced with the corresponding pixels in the photo of leaves, the result is a stop sign made up of leaves.

This technique can be used to “superimpose” pictures of your students onto a variety of other pictures. I get a large sheet of blue paper from my school’s supply room and take each of my student’s pictures standing in front of the blue paper. The students then search the web for pictures they would like to insert themselves into. That’s where the fun begins. One of my students wrote a travelogue, showing all the countries he “visited” over the summer.

My students found it helpful to have all the commands on one summary page, so I’ve summarized the commands in the “Digital Images” section in this document.

Have fun!

Evelyn Torres-Rangel
CSTA Board of Directors

What YOU Think of CSTA

Posted on June 22, 2014 by admin

Once a year we send out a survey link to members. We alternate between a survey that focuses on the landscape of Computer Science education (the National Computer Science High School Survey) and one that focuses on how CSTA is doing to meet the needs of our membership.

As the chair of the Membership Committee, I had the fun task of compiling the results of the membership survey into information for the organization. Along the way, I read every single comment that our respondents wrote. One of them asked if this information would ever be made public, if he would ever get to see how everyone else answered these questions. So here are the highlights:

Why did you join CSTA?
To belong to a community dedicated to excellence in K-12 Computer Science education and for access to resources and instructional materials (tied at 73%). Followed by access to cutting-edge research about current teaching practices and technologies at 70% and preferred access to vital professional development opportunities such as national symposia and workshops at 63%. Having a say in the development of critical policies concerning curriculum, standards, and certification came in last at 53%.

Of all the resources that CSTA provides, which are the most useful to you?
And the ranking is…

1. CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards and resources
2. Careers in computing resources (posters, brochures)
3. CSTA Regional/Chapter Workshops
4. CSTA Research (National Computer Science High School Survey)
5. Advocacy information
6. White papers (New Imperatives, Equity, Certification)
7. CSTA Annual Conference

The CSTA Board has a lot of good ideas of resources that would be useful to our members. We asked you to tell us which of our proposed membership benefits was most important. Here are the results:

1. More computer science curriculum resources
2. Regional conferences and workshops
3. Teacher mentorship program
4. More information for administrators
5. More brochures for students and parents
6. More classroom posters

What do you think of the Website, the Voice, the Advocate Blog?
Almost all members use the CSTA website “once in a while” and rated it “good” in all categories. Most of the respondents read the Voice, in fact only 38 respondents said they never read it. Of the respondents who do read it, most rated it “good” in all categories. This blog, however, did not fare as well. Almost half the respondents have never read the blog and 86% have never posted a comment. The half that have read it, rated it “good” in all categories.

How do you use the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards, the Crosswalk documents, and our research?
It turns out that there is still a significant population that is not aware of these resources or does not use them because they do not know where to find them. Thirty-five percent of respondents do not use the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards, and 63% of them indicated that they either are not aware of them or do not know where to find them. Only 21% of respondents have used the Crosswalk documents. The respondents who have not used them indicated that the reason was because they were not aware of them (56%) or do not know where to find them (26%). The results were similar for the research papers.

But, overall, what you do think of CSTA?
Only 1% of the respondents indicated that CSTA does not provide value to them as a professional. The same 1% would not recommend membership in CSTA to a colleague. Has membership in CSTA facilitated connections with other computer science educators? 63% say Yes!

Tammy Pirmann
School District Representative, CSTA Board of Directors
Chair of the Membership Committee

What are you doing this summer?

Posted on June 16, 2014 by admin

The school year is ending soon. For some it is over. AP CS teachers are happy the AP exam is over and many of them are looking forward to the AP CS reading. Others are shaking their heads at the very idea of people being happy to attend an event where they will spend hours on end grading student work. For the most part all teachers are thinking about their summer break. There will be some real rest and recreation for some. Second or third jobs for others. And many are looking forward to professional development.

For me this summer means two big professional development events – ISTE and the Annual CSTA Conference (www.cstaconference.org). I expect to learn a lot at each of those events. I love formal PD events. Over the years I have learned and grown from many of them. They’re wonderful. But they are not my end all and be all. Informal learning is also important and useful.

One of the wonderful things about teaching computer science is the plethora of new programming languages and development tools. OK it does make it hard to keep up at times and we cannot and should not just adopt new things for the sake of adopting new things. On the other hand we have many opportunities to learn new things and bring new interests to our students.

Have you got a coding project you’ve thought would be interesting to use as a demo or assign to students? Or perhaps some new way of doing things that might get students interested? Perhaps mobile phone development or touch computing or maybe using a Kinect for user interfaces? Or web development/programming? Think about using a new tool or programming language to take something on over the summer. Just like for students, working on projects is a great way to learn something new. Just be sure to choose a project that will be fun, interesting or solve a real problem you have so that you have lots of motivation to work at it.

Whatever you do to relax, rest, and recover from the school year try and learn something new as well. You and your students will both be better for it.

Alfred Thompson
At-large member
CSTA Board

CS Team Testifies on California Bill 1764

Posted on April 10, 2014 by CSTA Blog

Yesterday the California Assembly Committee on Education unanimously passed Bill 1764. This bill would encourage districts to expand computer science courses in high schools and its passage at the critical committee level is the result of the hard work of many individuals.
AB 1764 would allow school districts to award students credit for one mathematics course if they successfully complete one course in computer science approved by the University of California and/or the California State University as a “C” requirement. Such credit would only be offered in districts where the school district requires more than two courses in mathematics for graduation.
AB 1764 was jointly proposed by Kristin Olsen (Assemblymember 12th District) and Joan Buchanan (Assemblymember, 16th District) and both Buchanan and Olsen spoke eloquently about the importance of computer science in preparing students for future opportunities and meeting the needs of California’s innovative industries. They also thanked the members of the committee for recognizing the need to better prepare students for the demands of the workforce.
Representatives from many organizations were on hand to support the bill, including Andrea Deveau from TechNet, Amy Hirotaka from Code.org, Robyn Hines from Microsoft, and Jullie Flapan from Alliance for California Computing Education for Students and Schools (ACCESS). The star of the day, however, was Josh Paley.
Josh is a teacher from Gunn High School and one of the founding leaders of the CSTA Silicon Valley Chapter (among many other volunteer duties). Josh spoke passionately about the importance of making computer science courses both available and attractive to high school students. He also gave examples of many of his students who have gone on to innovative jobs as researchers, scientists, and entrepreneurs.
Speaking on behalf of the bill, Josh noted: “This legislation should not only encourage young people to move toward good, open jobs, but great jobs that drive innovation.”
Having been approved by the Education Committee, 1764 will undergo some minor edits and a significant number of additional Assemblymembers will be added as coauthors. It will then go to the Assembly floor and then (if it passes) to the Senate Rules Committee for a committee assignment (possibly the Senate Education Committee).
There is a long trip ahead for this bill but key support from the Assembly Committee on Education and all of the individuals and organizations working on behalf of computer science education in California have given it an excellent beginning.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

Code Red: Where are the Women in Computing?

Posted on December 17, 2013 by CSTA Blog

Editor’s Note:
This blog piece from our partners at Change the Equation details their recent report on the continued underrepresentation of women in computing, an issue of deep importance to CSTA as we strive to engage all students in the computer science education and workforce pathways.
At Change the Equation, we’re issuing a “code red.” As STEM educators, students, and enthusiasts across the country begin celebrating Computer Science Education Week, we’ve taken a step back to examine new data on the problem with our newest Vital Signs brief, Half Empty: As Men Surge Back Into Computing, Women are Left Behind, and the outlook is alarming:

As these figures indicate, the number of women in computing has not only dropped to a mere quarter of the workforce, but its further decline could lead to a disastrous shortage of computer science talent that will fail to keep up with rising global demand.

women made up only 25% of the computing workforce in 2011

there are 1.7 open computing jobs for everyone unemployed computer science professionals

by 2020 it is projected that there will be 1.4 million computing job openings
The situation with education is just as dire:

in 1983, women earned 36% of all computing degree, but by 2012 that fell to just 18%

23% of girls say they have no interest in computer science

0.4% of female college freshmen list STEM as their intended college major
Worse yet, one of the main contributing factors to this growing issue is a troublesome societal message that women and girls are getting: computing is not for you.
Luckily, intrepid organizations like Techbridge, Girlstart, she++, and Black Girls Code are working to stem the tide and empower female students to pursue their interests in computing. Their efforts, coupled with vital, 21st-century enhancements to graduation requirements and standards, can breathe new life into the future of women and girls in computer science.
Claus von Zastrow
COO/Director of Research
Change the Equation

The CSTA Advocate Blog

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