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CS Principles and Creativity

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Students will likely need exposure to, and practice with the CS Principles big Idea “Creativity” many, many times before a “creative – innovative – mindset” is comfortable and natural. You may have to undo years of “non-creativity conditioning.”

It is not enough to tell students that creativity is important; you must show students that you value creativity by actively engaging in it yourself. I don’t have to tell you that a unit exclusively “on creativity” is bound to fall flat!

So how can we build creativity and innovation into the very core of CS Principles? A few suggestions from a variety of experts:

  1. Let students know that there are usually multiple paths that lead to understanding.
  2. Arrange student collaborations that provide meaningful (to them) real-world, problem-solving opportunities.
  3. Provide lots of project and performance choices that employ a variety of “intelligences” whenever feasible.
  4. Encourage them to look for and experiment with new things and ideas.
  5. Encourage questioning.
  6. Be sure your grading does not penalize “less than successful” creativity. Students will not feel free to experiment if their grade hinges on some abstract measure of success. The true reward for being creative is purely intrinsic.
  7. Encourage them to mistakes as opportunities for learning rather than failures.
  8. Enable students to exchange, value, and build upon the ideas of others. Share interesting examples of technological creativity that you run across in the media.
  9. Make time for informal interactions between students.
  10. Offer a safe environment that encourages risk-taking. Avoid a competitive and extrinsically rewarding classroom, by providing a friendly, secure, and comfortable environment.

What do you do in your classroom to build the creative capacity of your students? Share with us!

 

 

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Computer Science: Dictating Careers in Digital Technology

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The Computer Science Teacher Association’s Executive Director, Mark Nelson was recently featured in MediaplanetUSA’s “Careers in Digital Tech” campaign to inspire students to pursue careers in digital tech. The campaign highlights companies that are evolving and hiring the next great tech professionals. Providing tips and advice on the best path to take in order to be successful in digital careers from industry professionals themselves. The campaign was distributed in a centerfold of USA Today on September 4, 2015, and can also be viewed here: http://www.educationandcareernews.com/career-development/computer-science-dictating-careers-in-digital-technology.

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RESPECT for Diversity (in Computing)

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Last week I had the honor and pleasure of attending the 10th annual STARS Celebration collocated with the first annual RESPECT Celebration in Charlotte, NC. STARS Computing Corps is a community of practice for student-led regional engagement as a means to broaden participation in computing.  RESPECT is the acronym for Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology.

The celebrations highlighted the widespread and diverse efforts to broaden participation in computing (BPC). NSF was a proud sponsor of the celebrations along with Google, IT-ology, Duke Energy, Bank of America, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina, UNC-Charlotte, and others. In addition to the many rising “stars” in computing education from the colleges and universities as well as high schools, the attendees included many well-known computer science educators. The sessions for the RESPECT attendees included engaging presentations of research on diversity in computing, a panel discussion on why we can and should keep diversity in focus during the college/university surge in CS enrollment, and lightning talks. Friday evening’s highlight was a STARS and RESPECT reception at Discovery Place—featuring food and fun with interactive science exhibits in addition to the RESPECT poster session.

The STARS attendees had ample choices among sessions addressing mentoring, professional preparation for students, outreach, and sessions of interest to faculty members. The STARS participants also participated in a Career Fair sponsored by IT-ology and a parallel STARS poster competition. The Saturday sessions for STARS participants focused on topics in mentoring, professional, outreach, grad school, sustainability and a track for faculty as well as a track for high school students and teachers. Several CSTA members were in attendance on Saturday and brought their students with them to participate.

The opening keynote address was delivered by Richard Ladner, Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, who presented a fascinating discussion about accessibility in computing education (you may have met Richard at the CSTA Annual Conference in Dallas). Richard is the PI for the NSF-funded AccessComputing Alliance dedicated to increasing participation of students with disabilities in computing fields. He is also a PI for the NSF-funded AccessCS10K, which has a goal of preparing K-12 teachers to be more inclusive in their computing courses, particularly ECS and CSP, of students with disabilities.

The Friday lunch featured a BPC Fireside Chat presented by representatives from Special Technical Community on Broadening Participation (STCBP), Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W), CDC, the Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI), the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance, AccessComputing, Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in Information Technology (CMD-IT), STARS, the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), and the Institute for African-American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (IAAMCS). The presenters represented the multitude of organizations devoted to broadening participation in computer science and the collaborative relationship among the organizations. Conference participants were given an overview of each organization and the resources that each organization provides to broaden participation.

The keynote on Saturday was presented by Teresa Dahlberg, Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University. Teresa was co-founder of the STARS Computing Corps and presented a brief history of the organization.

This was a great conference for me. In addition to thoroughly enjoyable and interesting presentations, the conference served to bring broadening participation in computing back to the forefront—though it has never been far from it. This is a critical focus for computing for many reasons. Working together, we can accomplish the BPC goal. As you begin another academic year, take some time to reflect on how you are broadening participation of women and underrepresented minorities as well as those with disabilities, in your computing program. If you are a K-12 educator, have you considered partnering with a STARS member at a local university? Have you attended Tapestry Workshops? Have you taken time to visit the websites of the groups mentioned in this blog post to see what resources may be available to you? If you are a college or university educator, have you considered adopting the STARS Leadership Corps model for service learning? Have you joined the STARS Online Community? In short, what are you doing to actively promote broadening participation in your computing program? This post provides you with ample resources to do just that.

Deborah Seehorn, CSTA Board of Directors Past Chair

Websites:

http://www.starscomputingcorps.org/

http://respect2015.stcbp.org/

https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503593

http://www.discoveryplace.org/

http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/home/accesscomputing-homepage

http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/accesscs10k

http://stcbp.org/

http://cra.org/cra-w/

http://cahsi.cs.utep.edu/

http://expandingcomputing.cs.umass.edu/

http://www.cmd-it.org/

https://www.ncwit.org/

http://www.iaamcs.org/

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Computer Science in K-8 at the 2015 CSTA conference

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This summer’s CSTA conference in Grapevine, Texas had far more K-8 sessions than any previous CSTA conference. A simple metric that measures the strong interest in K-8 Computer Science today. A K-8 computer science teacher like myself had a clear K-8 track to follow and I have come away with my head filled with wonderful ideas for my elementary and middle school students.  Best PD ever!
Like most conferences, much of the learning is not from the sessions, but from the many conversations over a meal or on the bus ride to the airport or just hanging out and chatting in the corridors. I think it did help that the temperature in July in Texas is about 100 degrees outside – we all stayed indoors and networked!
Some of the stuff I learned (and must explore more) from the sessions and vendor area at the conference include :
For those who missed the CSTA conference, you can experience some of the highlights by going through the Storify of the tweets at
To make sure you do not miss it next year – go ahead and ‘Save the Date’: July 10-12, 2016, in San Diego!  I hope to see you there !
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The Lessons of HitchBot

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This past week, a story circulated around social media about how HitchBot, a friendly hitchhiking robot met a grisly end here in Philadelphia. When the news hit, all my techie friends rallied and vowed, “We can rebuild him.” Computer Science professors and teachers and a local MakerSpace all agreed to pitch in. Then came news that the demise of HitchBot might not have been true, that the surveillance video was created by a prankster. So no one quite knew what to believe.

Unfortunately, while the video was a fake, the robot was indeed destroyed, and the Canadian researchers who created him ended his journey. The researchers had set out to see if humans would treat robots with kindness. I guess the answer, at least for humans in the US, is no. Research on human-robot interaction is widespread as many futurists and computer scientists believe we’ll be interacting more and more with robots who might be taking on some of our routine tasks. We already have the prospect of self-driving cars on the horizon, and in Japan, they’re researching caregiving robots. It makes sense to figure out how to create robots in ways that we will want to interact with them productively and not, as in HitchBot’s case, destroy them.

To me, there are two lessons to take from the HitchBot story. One is that humans might treat robots just like humans, which is to say, we aren’t always kind and can be downright violent. The second lesson is that it pays to do some research on news stories. It was honestly really hard to tell what the real story was for many days. First, everyone thought it was real, then everyone thought it was fake and that the robot never existed, and then a clearer picture emerged that was more complex than the original story indicated. Social media often amplifies untruths and correcting a story might take a long time, if it happens at all. So before you click through to the story, check your sources. If it seems crazy, it probably is. And if you see a robot hitchhiking along the side of the road or resting on a park bench, give her a ride. You’ll be improving human-robot relations.

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What do students think about coding?

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What does assessment look like in a K-8 Computer Science program? Computer science teachers like myself use various methods to determine learning amongst their students, examples include:  a debug activity, some version of ‘get the robot through the maze in N programming blocks’ or a rubric to assess different components of a Scratch project.

In addition to problem solving and programming skills, I also assess my student’s attitude to computer science.  Through the year, I use anonymous SurveyMonkey surveys, Google forms, Edmodo questions, and writing prompts to determine what student think about their learning and about coding.

Since I teach across the Los Altos school district (over 500 students each week), I have a wealth of data to analyze after each survey. My survey question at the end of this school year was ‘ What do you think about coding? What would you tell someone to convince them that they should learn to code? ‘.

This question generated a wide variety of responses. Here are some that seem to have a common theme – can you detect it?

  • I think it’s difficult, but still interesting.
  • It was fun yet challenging.
  • It is kind of difficult to learn at first, but then is fun to play with
  • Coding is hard in the beginning but fun once you learn how.
  • It is fun but hard and boring.
  • Coding is fun but hard. If you want to design or make something coding is for you.
  • Coding is hard but interesting.
  • Love it, and makes your brain work hard while you have tons of fun.
  • I think coding is fun but can be difficult.
  • I liked coding. It was challenging though.
  • I think coding is very interesting and challenging. The feeling of success when you finish a project is all worth the trouble.
  • Coding is complicated but fun. People think it’s scary because it’s new but it’s actually really cool!

The common theme is: ‘difficult but fun’.

These students find coding fun even though it is difficult. In fact, they think it is fun because it is hard. They enjoy coding for the same reason they enjoy a good video game – it is challenging. It is not easy and boring.

Seymour Papert who showed us that children can program computers almost 40 years ago, explained this kind of learning as ‘Hard fun’ in his article http://www.papert.org/articles/HardFun.html

It appears that my sixth grade students agree with the student Papert mentions in his article. Coding is fun and it is hard. Much has changed in terms of tools and resources in the last 40 years, and it is good to know that this fundamental attitude remains the same.

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CSTA Professional Development Committee

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The Professional Development Committee’s purpose is to improve teaching and learning in the computing disciplines by identifying the ongoing professional development needs of members; by developing, facilitating, and overseeing the professional development activities of the organization; and by building partnerships with other organizations that support CSTA’s mission and goals.

Specific initiatives include:

  • Encouraging networking and resource sharing opportunities for members.
  • Building upon the success of the CSTA Annual Conference to provide more professional development opportunities for members.
  • Developing and disseminating materials and providing support for local, chapter-driven professional development.
  • Expanding the presence of the CSTA, especially board members, at regional and national conferences.

The current members of the committee are Dave Reed (chair), Myra Deister, Irene Lee, and Fran Trees.

Dave Reed
Chair, Professional Development Committee

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PRESS RELEASE: ACM, CSTA Announce New Award to Recognize US High School Students in Computing

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Gordon Bell and David Cutler Establish $1 Million Endowment to Fund Award

NEW YORK, June 17, 2015– ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, and CSTA, the Computer Science Teachers Association, today announced a new award, the ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing, to recognize talented high school students in computer science. The program seeks to promote and encourage the field of computer science, as well as to empower young and aspiring learners to pursue computing challenges outside of the traditional classroom environment.

“This new award touches on several areas central to ACM’s mission,” said ACM President Alexander L Wolf. “Chief among these are to foster technological innovation and excellence, in this case, by bringing the excitement of invention to students at a time in their lives when they begin to make decisions about higher education and career possibilities.”

Four winners will be selected annually and each will be awarded a $10,000 prize and cost of travel to the annual ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing Reception where students will demonstrate their programs and discuss their work. The prizes will be funded by a $1 million endowment established by David Cutler and Gordon Bell. Cutler is a software engineer, designer and developer of several operating systems including Windows NT at Microsoft and RSX-11M, VMS and VAXELN at Digital Equipment Corporation. He is Senior Technical Fellow at Microsoft. Bell is an electrical engineer and an early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation where he led the development of VAX. He is now a researcher emeritus at Microsoft Research.

“David and I are delighted to endow this new award to recognize, encourage and reward high school students in computing,” said Gordon Bell. “We hope that it proves to help students discover computer science and how empowering computing can be.”

Eligible applicants for the award will include graduating high school seniors residing and attending school in the US. Challenges for the award will focus on developing an artifact that engages modern computing technology and computer science. Judges will look for submissions that demonstrate ingenuity, complexity, relevancy, originality, and a desire to further computer science as a discipline.

The application period for the inaugural award is scheduled to open August 1, 2015 and close January 1, 2016. The inaugural awards will be announced in February 2016.

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Technotrash and the Future

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Part of our job as teachers is to excite our students about computing and to show them how computers affect their lives, both now and in the future. These days, many of our students are (rightly) concerned about the environment and are aware of stories in the news about the growing problem of technotrash. As the latest technological gadgets are released, the obsolete technology is discarded and finds its way to landfills, where toxic and non-biodegradable components raise environmental issues. I ran across this interesting article the other day on Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150526123835.htm. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have developed a technique for building the substrate layer of computer chips from wood (technically, from a biodegradable cellulose nanofibril). Greener computers may be on the horizon.

Dave Reed
Chair-Elect, CSTA Board of Directors

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CSTA Certification Committee

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Have you taken at any time a computer science teaching methods course?
If so, at what university or college?

I hope you answered these questions on the recent survey from CSTA. The answers to these two questions will help the Certification Committee determine which Colleges and Universities are offering a Computer Science Teaching Methods course. Most certification paths include a methods course in the discipline.http://csta.acm.org/ComputerScienceTeacherCertification/sub/CertReportCover.jpg

Some information is very difficult to pin down and teacher certification for computer science is one them! When we asked you how computer science teachers are certified in your state, we often received multiple and contradictory reports. After all of the research and verification was done, we published the “Bugs in the System: Computer Science Teacher Certification in the U.S.” white paper and its corresponding interactive site.

Look for an update to the interactive map of the US based on the information you provided in the most recent survey.

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