This past Tuesday I had the privilege of attending a presentation titled Developing a New National Course in Computer Science presented by Dr. Owen Astrachan of Duke University. The presentation was sponsored by the RISE Network (Promoting Research and Instruction in STEM Education) at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. The presentation was not only informative, but was enjoyable as well.
I had arrived a few minutes early and took the opportunity to notice the audience as they filed into the lecture room. There were a few folks in my generation, a few somewhat younger, and many who were obviously students (perhaps they received extra credit points for attending). I was delighted to see so many young people attend, but disheartened that only 4 or 5 of the students were female. There was good ethnic diversity at the meeting, so that was encouraging.
Dr. Stephen Tate of UNC-G introduced the speaker and spoke of the several critical issues that we face in Computer Science (including underrepresentation of females in the discipline). Dr. Astrachan then gave a brief background of the (AP) CS Principles course initiative and the process. He then presented the seven Big Ideas for the proposed course:
1. Computing is a creative human activity that engenders innovation and promotes exploration.
2. Abstraction reduces information and detail to focus on concepts relevant to understanding and solving problems.
3. Data and information facilitate the creation of knowledge.
4. Algorithms are tools for developing and expressing solutions to computational problems.
5. Programming is a creative process that produces computational artifacts.
6. Digital devices, systems, and the networks that interconnect them enable and foster computational approaches to solving problems.
7. Computing enables innovation in other fields including mathematics, science, social science, humanities, arts, medicine, engineering, and business.
Dr. Astrachan proceeded to discuss the indicators that would expand each Big Idea, which led to interesting discussions among the group. One must note that the entire course is not programming, though programming is part of the course. Several intriguing examples of content that could be covered in the proposed course sparked student interest. So much so, that one young man raised his hand and asked what the students could do to help with the current state of CS Education. Another spoke up and asked if a mathematics teacher could teach a course of this sort. Again interesting conversation followed.
I was most heartened to see that at least some of the students considered teaching high school CS (problematic in our state, since we have no CS Teaching License). Maybe they liked all the great visual demonstrations that we viewed. Maybe they were inspired by Dr. Astrachan’s story about how high school students may come back to thank an awesome teacher for help or inspiration given. Maybe they just love the discipline. We can hope. Maybe this will be the spark that ignites CS education in our schools. Maybe we will see more females in the CS discipline. In any case, this is a new direction and a welcome one.
More information about the proposed (AP) CS Principles course can be found by following this link:
http://csprinciples.org/
A simple Google search on “CS Principles” produces several blogs that address the proposed course, including this one:
http://www.apluscompsci.com/blog/?p=404.
Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Board of Directors

One of my favorite little (really little) books, published in 1990, is Sheila Tobias’ They’re not dumb. They’re different: Stalking the Second Tier. Yes. In 1990. In a related article, Tobias summary of her work states:
Unappealing media depictions of science discourage women and minorities from entering the field. In the author’s opinion, college-level science teachers should take responsibility for the high dropout rates in science programs (40% of students drop out of the sciences after the first course taken; 40% more leave before graduation). And key to salvaging the “second tier” of students, she claims, is the following: 1) Engaging teaching practices, 2) Efforts towards recruitment and retention, 3) Increased dialogue and demonstrations in class, 4) Greater emphasis on independent thinking and context, 5) Encouraging cooperation rather than competition among students.
Her work with college students revealed that only 31% of students who drop out of science majors in college do so because the courses are too difficult. The greatest percentage of students leaving the sciences (43%) leave the field because they find other subjects “more interesting.”
Although Tobias’ work was specific to science, as I read the book and the related articles, I related them to computer science. Some of my best students are art majors and theater majors and music majors. It’s my responsibility, as a computer science teacher, to make sure they do not drop computer science because their other classes are more interesting. In fact, I find it refreshing, although sometimes challenging, to have a diverse classroom population (diverse in interests).
I immediately recalled Tobias’ work when a colleague shared a November 2010 article from Wired: Clive Thompson on Coding for the Masses. Here are some excerpts:
“…. He was a creative-writing major at the University of San Francisco, not a programmer. But he’d enrolled in a class where students were learning to use Google’s App Inventor, a tool that makes it pretty easy to hack together simple applications for Android phones by fitting bits of code together like Lego bricks.”
“A grassroots movement is creating tools that let even liberal arts majors hack together a program.”
“Got a problem you need to solve? When you can program it yourself, there’s always an app for that.”
So, how do you make sure your students do not drop computer science because their other classes are “more interesting?” Have an app for that?
Resources:
Wired article: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/st_thompson_wereallcoders/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29
They’re not dumb. They’re different. A new “tier of talent” for science. (summary of article in Change, 1990: http://www.cirtl.net/node/5534
They’re Not Dumb, They’re Different: Stalking the Second Tier. http://www.amazon.com/Theyre-Not-Dumb-Different-Occasional/dp/0963350404
Fran Trees
CSTA Chapter Liaison

We are now in the middle of Computer Science Education Week 2010 (December 5 to 11, 2010). What plans to you have to involve your school in this historic event?
If you are still looking for some ideas, you might check out the Computer Science Education Week web site at:
http://www.csedweek.org/
This web site is host to a collection of resources for you to use in promoting computer science education within your school community.
And if you are planning an event, be sure to join educators, students and supporters all over the world and take the pledge.
nother great idea for those schools with live announcement programs is CSTA’s CS Ed Week videos. These videos can be found on the CSTA web site at:
http://csta.acm.org/Advocacy_Outreach/sub/CSEdWeek.html
The videos are great two minute commercials to promote CS Education to your students. They can be downloaded in QuickTime or Windows Media Player versions for use with in-house video productions and broadcast out to the entire school. The set of five videos were produced by the University of California Irvine (UCI) for CSTA. CSTA would like to thank Debra Richardson, Bobby Farmer and the students of UCI for their great work on this project.
So what other ideas do you have on promoting CS Education in your school that you could share here with others?
Dave Burkhart
CSTA Membership Chair

Last year was the first year in our Great Transition, from teaching computer application courses to integrating computer science concepts into all of our courses. It was a challenge that will continue into this year. So as I prepare for the new school year I have been thinking about our curriculum, tinkering with last year’s lessons, and developing some new ones.
Every summer I read or reread a few “classic” books. This year I read George Orwell’s 1984. I also read Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side, which chronicles the USA’s post-9/11 foray into torture, renditions, etc. Fiction and non-fiction were blurred yet married by actions of those with strongly held beliefs, utilizing every tool at their disposal to justify their actions and further their cause. Remember the telescreens of Big Brother, with their 24-hour non-stop campaign of mis-information?
As the health care debate raged into August, I too was bombarded with misinformation via talk shows, emails, Facebook postings, and Twitter updates from across the political spectrum (from the President’s office, the offices of my Senator and Congressmen, various political organizations, and the good old newspaper).
I also watched the citizen unrest in Iran, through blogs on the web, YouTube videos and Twitter updates.
Finally, the last few days of summer brought news that Utah had passed a law equating driving while texting to driving while intoxicated.
Is there a CS link with all this? Well, there was clearly a technological component to these experiences. The delivery of information has changed, moving down to the micro-level of individual journalism, but still clinging at the macro-level of control of information by government and organizations. It all led me to consider that wise saying from Spiderman “with great power comes great responsibility.” I wonder whether we, as the teachers of this technology to the youth of our society, might add lessons on the ethical and moral responsibilities of that technology while we are sneaking in the critical thinking and problem solving skill lessons.
The high school students that sit in my classroom have lived with computers and technology their whole lives. They use this technology without giving any thought to how it works and the power it represents. In some ways it is similar to how my generation grew up with a telephone and television.
I believe that my students often use this technology without thought or consequence. Given the opportunity, they will text and tweet while engaging in other activities, giving superficial, if any, thought to the context in which they are communicating or to any impact of their actions. As a result we have cyber-bullying, texting-related automobile accidents, new forms of cheating, rampant plagiarism, and young girls being charged with crimes because they emailed semi-naked pictures of themselves to their friends. Much of this irresponsibility, I think, is without intent or malice. Rather, it stems from their complete comfort with the technology.
When I was first learning to drive, my dad handed me the car keys for a driving lesson, but before I started the engine he said to me: “I just handed you the keys to a 2,000 pound weapon. Let’s talk about how to handle it before you get started.” Maybe we need to consider a similar lesson as our students start up their iPODs, laptops, and cell phones.
Ron Martorelli
CSTA Board of Directors

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 21st International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from August 8th to 15th.
The IOI brings together some of the most talented high school programmers in the world (80 countries were represented) to take part two contests over two days, each five hours in duration. Each country has a “team” of four students but the contestants are assessed as individuals. This year there were four problems each day. Each problem is judged out of 100, so the total score is 800. Typically IOI problems can be very difficult and each problem has a memory and time limit. The students must use either Pascal, C or C++.
Students are usually identified through national programming competitions, and further trained by enthusiastic volunteers. The students must have attended high school September through December of the year prior to the IOI and must be under 20. Like all the Scientific Olympiads there are gold, silver and bronze awards, shared out among the top 50% of contestants. This year the cut off score for a bronze medal was 399 marks.
This year’s event was held in perfect weather in the picturesque town of Plovdiv, with the award ceremony taking place in a Roman amphitheater which was only rediscovered 20 years ago. The students and leaders were treated to five-star accommodation, food and excursions to an aqua park and the Black Sea. All the expenses from registration/ arrival day through to departure day were covered by the Bulgarian organizers. It seemed that no expense was spared and the organization was superb. The contest days ran smoothly with all problems having been accepted by the leaders with no major objections and there were no major appeals with the judging.
Some countries traditionally do very well at this event, although such success doesn’t necessarily seem correlated to the teaching of Computer Science, or those particular languages, in high schools. While the contestants sit the exams, the leaders attend a conference and some of the papers presented indicate that the difficulties CS teachers in high schools have are shared around the world. Most leaders are from Universities, but there is a sprinkling of high school teachers and we enjoy the opportunity to share our successes as well as frustrations. (And I was particularly flattered that one leader recognized my name as belonging to CSTA!!)
All in all a wonderful week and, dare I mention it, two New Zealand students gained bronze medals.
The full results and task descriptions and solutions are available on:
www.ioi209.org
Margot Philllipps
CSTA International Director

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over and classes will be starting soon for most of us. I’d like to introduce myself to the blog – I am Dave Reed, the new College Rep on the CSTA Board of Directors. I am computer science faculty at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and come to the CSTA Board after finishing my term as Chief Reader of AP Computer Science.
For those of you who attended the CS&IT Symposium in Washington, D.C., I hope you were able to attend Steve Cooper’s informative and entertaining session on funding for CS education. One of the points that Steve made, that I heartily concur with, is that many opportunities currently exist for connecting college and high school teachers. I know numerous college teachers who would love to network with their counterparts at local high schools – to share ideas and resources, or simply find kindred spirits interested in computer science education. Unfortunately, making the connection has not always been easy. Tenure-track faculty at colleges are often under pressure to do scholarship, and time spent away from research or direct student contact may negatively impact chances for promotion.
Two things have changed the culture of connection in the past few years.
1) One positive consequence of the drop in college CS enrollments is that college administrations are now more receptive to outreach. In addition to providing professional development for college teachers, partnering with high school teachers helps them to better understand the students that they are hoping to attract. Furthermore, introducing high school students to CS career opportunities and the specifics of their college program can be effective in raising the number of college CS students.
2) CSTA has stepped up and provided a simple but effective framework for building local networks. Forming a CSTA Chapter is a fairly straightforward task (see http://csta.acm.org/About/sub/CSTAChapters.html for details, or email [email protected]). Once formed, regular CSTA Chapter meetings provide a forum for interested college and high school teachers to get together. The CSTA Chapter Liaison will provide advice and support, and will even provide the chapter with contact information of local CSTA members.
So, if you are a high school teacher interested in knowing how to better prepare your students for college and/or CS careers, or a college teacher who would like the opportunity to better understand and attract high school students, I encourage you to look into organizing a CSTA Chapter.
Dave Reed ([email protected])
CSTA Board of Directors

Summertime is a time to rest after a long school year. It’s also a time to rejuvenate and breathe new life into your teaching by accessing professional development opportunities.
I had the opportunity to attend a two-day workshop offered by the University of Massachusetts in Lowell in June, called Artbotics. The idea behind Artbotics is to blend art and robotics, and in the process, promote computer science to students who otherwise might not see it as a relevant discipline.
The workshop was exciting, fun, and engaging. Using Cricket Logo and a SuperCricket device, we created interactive pieces of art that lit up and/or moved. The participants were varied – some folks taught art, others computer science. Middle school through university was represented. Everyone jumped right in, no matter what their background and creative and unique projects resulted. Even those people with little or no computer science background were able to write simple scripts that made their art come alive, showing me that this was a good way to make computer science more accessible to novices. It appeared as though people left motivated with ideas and ways to implement some of the ideas/curriculum into their programs.
I came away excited that I have another tool to engage my computer science students and to add relevance for them, especially my female students. In addition to teaching computer science, I teach art electives. Most of the students in my art electives are female. If I can hook one or two girls via this bridge between art and computer science, I will be happy.
For more information about Artbotics at UMass Lowell, see:
http://artbotics.cs.uml.edu/
Karen Lang
CSTA Board of Directors

Building community partnerships can impact a computer science program in many ways – seen and unseen. And there is motivation for such relationships on the part of community organizations such as colleges and businesses, as well as schools. Both have much to gain.
Building these community partnerships and creating “community” in CS education is the focus of the September issue of the Voice which you will be receiving in just a few weeks. In the Voice you will read about schools in Ohio, California, Washington, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and others that have created unique community relationships.
We would like to hear about your experiences with building partnerships.
Who is part of your “CS community?”
How has the partnership impacted the learning opportunities of your students?
What did you learn from the experience?
In addition to the success stories in the Voice, don’t miss the latest CS Snipits podcast. Alfred Thompson has years of experience with building community partnerships as both an educator and as a K-12 CS Academic Relation Manager for Microsoft. He offers sounds advice on building these relationships and some “first steps” for getting started. Listen to Alfred at:
csta.acm.org/Communications/sub/Podcasts.html
Pat Philllips
Editor, CSTA Voice

No doubt CS teachers in the USA are aware of the Julie Amero case, where the Connecticut substitute teacher was convicted on four counts of risk of injury to a minor or impairing the morals of a child when students in her class were exposed to pornographic materials that were somehow downloaded to her computer. So it may come as no surprise that a similar case has happened elsewhere.
A documentary (The Worst That Could Happen) has just been screened highlighting the case of a New Zealand primary school principal who lost his job and therefore income (and then his house) because pornography was downloaded onto his school laptop. The story seems all too familiar. The Board of Trustees of the school (the principal’s legal employer) did not do a proper forensic investigation of the hard drive. They also misled him on the direction he should take (advising him to resign). The Teacher’s Council (the body that certifies all New Zealand teachers) then threatened to take away his right to teach.
Voluntary help arrived in the form of forensic IT specialists, Warren Anderson and Skip Parker and a lawyer, Andrew Hooker, who all provided their time for free. This computer forensic team was able to show that the pornographic images were downloaded onto the computer by a trojan during a time that the principal could prove that he wasn’t even at the computer. As a result, the New Zealand principal was able to keep his teacher registration (certification).
What has been happening in increasingly frequent similar cases has been compared to the Salem Witch trials. Certainly it would appear that totally innocent teachers are losing their livelihoods and professions through no fault of their own.
Julie Amero’s treatment at the hands of the law was much more severe. The impact on her personal life was devastating. She lost her job, her health, and a longed for baby. When she was shown the documentary about the New Zealand principal, her reaction was: “He should run for the hills. No teacher should have a computer in their room.” Given her experience, her advice is totally understandable.
But as CS teachers, this not advice we can take. It’s also not advice we can ignore. Often the computing teacher is considered the school expert on all things computing so we need to be especially cognizant of these issues and as informed as we can be.
Thankfully, Warren, Skip and Andrew have produced a wonderful guide (which I have been lucky enough to see advance copy of) that guides everyone in the process (the teacher, the employer, and the IT Department) to ensure no evidence is destroyed and that the teacher involved is afforded natural justice. I’m sure once it is published, they would be happy for it to be made more widely available.
Margot Phillipps
CSTA Board of Directors

Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything accomplished. It can be hard for me to balance my family, career, and personal life. So how can I find time to search for new resources that I need next month for the start of school? Here are a few of the resources than I am relying upon to get me started for the new school year.
CSTA Source: Have you checked it out lately? I have to admit that this was a resource that I had sparingly used in the past. Why? Well, I get into the pattern of using a new variation of lessons from last year. This year, I have changed jobs and there aren’t any last year’s lessons to rely upon. The CSTA Source is a great place to find new resources for the classroom. When was the last time you checked it out? Now might be a great time to add a resource of your own or search for a new one.
Social Networking Sites: It sounds strange, but you can use social networking to find resources for the classroom too. A friend of mine posted a status update that referred me to a Web site which helps to introduce students to algorithmic thinking. You might want to check it out at:
http://www.robozzle.com/
Another friend created a networking site for teachers to share ideas. I usually think of social networks as social communications tools but I am now finding them good for professional resources as well. By the way, did you know that CSTA is on Facebook? Just go to
www.facebook.com
and search for CSTA.
Blogs: Blogs are becoming more important to me. I have a few favorites that I follow and check periodically. The CSTA Blog is one that I follow more than others. Barb Ericson’s blog entry from July 22 shares several online resources that will be of help to those of us returning to the classroom in a few weeks. It can be a great place for others to share their ideas too. Where do you find your resources?
Summer Activities: This is the time of the year that I think back to all the activities that I have participated in over the summer. I think back to the GameMaker:
http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/
session at CS&IT 2009:
http://csta.acm.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/CSIT09Presentations.html
by Fran Trees. This is an idea that I hope to use with my upper middle school students who have no previous programming experience. GameMaker makes it very easy for students to create interactive games.
My wife will be adding a standalone technology course to her elementary school this year. While at NECC, I saw previews of Kodu which will be great for her to use with her third through fifth graders. Kodu is a graphics based, drag and drop coding application that allows students to create games using the Xbox 360 system on the PC. While the classroom version of Kodu hasn’t been released I have heard it is to be released sometime in August. You might want to check into it if you teach in an elementary or middle school classroom.
What are some of the things that you learned this summer and plan to take back into your classroom? I would love to hear about some of your experiences in the comment section. Remember, I too use this blog as a resource for my classroom ideas.
Dave Burkhart
CSTA Board of Directors