Special thanks to our keynote speaker George Moore, Chief Technology Officer, Azure Global Retail Engineering, Microsoft Corp for his speech on computer science and the work of tomorrow

Thank you to Grace Waylen, Matt Paulson, Kenny Chan, Rachel Huang, Patrick O’Steen, and Kevin Wang from TEALS for sponsoring this event by providing the venue, food, t-shirts, coordination and promotional assistance.

An additional shout out to all those who helped make the event happen: Lawrence Tanimoto for organization and communication; Kory Srock our master of ceremonies who also found our speaker; Alec McTavish, the Master Of Google Spreadsheets, for registration; Daniel Lafferty and Amanda O’Neal for handling permission forms and check-in; Lauren Bricker for financial management and raffle prizes, Tracey Sconyers for food management, Earl Bergquist for t-shirt design, photography management, and trophies; Brett Wortzman for sage advice; Anna Burago, Ioulia Levenkova, Lawrence Tanimoto, and David Wyde for packet creation; and our lead and head judges Michael Hawker – Lead Judge; Chad Magendanz (Head Intermediate/Novice Judge), Andrew Fitz Gibbon (Head Advanced Judge).

Photos from the contest:

• Elias
• Fletcher

Intermediate/Novice winners

Advanced division

Please contact us for a copy of the results.

The post PSCSTA Programmers Rain Code in April appeared first on PSCSTA.

The Seattle team at Def Hacks (defhacks.io) is hosting the third annual 24-hour hackathon at Microsoft HQ on April 13th-14th (see Def_Hacks_Seattle_Flyer) . The hackathon is an MLH Member Event, and has a strong emphasis on FinTech as Even (evenfinancial.com) is a sponsor and co-host. We will have mentors and recruiters from multiple companies, free meals and snacks, lots of swag, and over $2,000 in prizes! If you’re interested, learn more at defhacks.io/hackathons/seattle, apply by filling out our Typeform at https://defhacks.typeform.com/to/soJJIA (you will hear back by April 6th), or feel free to reach out to christopher@defhacks.io if you have any questions.

The post Def Hacks April 13-14 appeared first on PSCSTA.

REGISTRATION LINK: https://teamscode.typeform.com/to/bnGcWl

Thank you for supporting TeamsCode!

The post TeamsCode Contest set for March 16 appeared first on PSCSTA.

Stay tuned for more substantive changes to PSCSTA so we can better serve the K-12 teachers (and there by the students) in computer science in the region!

The post New Logo! appeared first on PSCSTA.

The post PLU Programming Contest 2/2/2019 appeared first on PSCSTA.

The invitation to TechOut is now live! Teachers and parents, please pass this along.

Who: Girls grade 7-12
What: FREE! A day for girls to have fun and explore careers in technology and engineering. Learn from women in tech, participate in hands-on activities and workshops, network with peers and mentors.
When: Saturday, May 5th, 2018 10:00am – 2:30pm
Where: University of Washington Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering
How: Registration is limited! Sign up for this event now! Girls should register themselves on Eventbrite (The link is also on the poster.)

Note: If you register the event for your kids, you do not need register one ticket for yourself. Please bring your ticket to check in on the event day.

The post TechOut! Sponsored by Amazon on May 5 appeared first on PSCSTA.

They are also in need of judges that would help score each team’s solutions to their problems. Please contact Alan and Chris through their website for more information.

The post TeamsCode – Programming Contest March 31 (Judges Needed too) appeared first on PSCSTA.

Our next PSCSTA meeting will be an Unconference!

When: March 24, 12:00 (arrive and socialize), 12:30-2:30 for program with more social time at the end
Where: Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) Gates Commons (6th floor)
Registration: https://pscsta-unconference2018.eventbrite.com

Event Schedule:
12:00 – Arrive/socialize (Parking is free on campus after noon)
12:30 – 2:30: Unconference!
2:30 – Time to continue discussion or to socialize

If you would like to come strictly as a participant! Great!
If you feel you have something to share, even better! Topics are finalized on the date of the Unconference but could include:

– What happened at SIGCSE?
– How K-12 curriculum is changing as more students are seeing CS at earlier grades.
– CS Teach strategies in Elementary/MS/HS
– What to do for post AP projects?
– There’s all this talk about Data Science? Should I be doing it?
– What’s a good Post AP class?
– Robotics dos and don’ts
– Or many others

If you have other topics you would like to include PLEASE bring them!

Some may find this article helpful: How to prepare to attend an Unconference

NOTE: Participants who wish may have this workshop count for clock hours, sponsored by the PSCSTA and the UW Dawgbytes program. If interested, you will be required to do one follow up hour of reflective writing after the 2 hour workshop will be eligible to receive 3 clock hours.

The post Bring a Friend to the Unconference March 24 appeared first on PSCSTA.

If you’d like to learn more about the workshop, you can view the slides or contact Crystal.

Thanks to Crystal Hess for facilitating the workshop, Lauren Bricker for organizing, and the University of Washington for providing space. Thanks also to Jeremy Munroe for helping to make clock hours available to those who attended the workshop.

The post January workshop on teaching diverse students a success! appeared first on PSCSTA.

This workshop, run by Crystal Hess, is designed to engage critical thinking about how to build a collaborative learning community in the classroom that focuses on advocacy for students from marginalized or underserved populations.

Participants will engage in activities, discussion, and reflection to generate critical thinking about how can they, as educators, act/react to create a safe and equitable learning environment for our students. Participants gain common vocabulary about equity (privilege, bias, and allyship) and participate in discussions about how each of these can effect a student’s ability to engage in learning in the classroom and to feel belonging in to a collaborative learning community (particularly those students you are traditionally underserved or marginalized). Participants will work through example inequity scenarios, discuss solutions with their peers, and practice responses that create a safe and equitable learning experience for their students.

NOTE: Participants will be required to do an hour of pre-work consisting of groundwork for discussions in the sessions including reading supplied articles and completing supplied activities as well as reflecting on those experiences before coming to the workshop.

Participants who complete the pre-work and the 2 hour workshop will be eligible to receive 3 regular clock hours (sponsored by PSCSTA and the UW Dawgbytes program) (pending approval from WSTA, but we don’t think it will be a problem). Please email csta.pugetsound@gmail.com if you would like to receive clock hours for this event.

Event Schedule:
12:00 – Arrive/socialize (Parking is free on campus after noon)
12:30 – 2:30: Workshop
2:30 – Time to continue discussion or to socialize

About the facilitator: Crystal Hess is a tenure-track Computer Science Instructor at Shoreline Community College. She previously taught both High School and was most recently Program Director at Ada Developers Academy (a coding bootcamp in Seattle for women and gender diverse people). She is most passionate about creating an equitable, safe, and fun learning experience for all students (especially the underserved) in the intro sequence (CS0 and CS1 in particular) and creating communities where people feel supported and connected (both students and educators).

The post Jan 20 Workshop: Teaching Diverse Students with a Lens on Equity in the CS Classroom appeared first on PSCSTA.