Fostering Tech Talent in Schools
Here is a link to an article in the New York Times about Microsoft’s activities in the Seattle area, promoting Computer Science education in the high schools. Kevin Wang is in the news again.
2012 – 2013 Meeting Schedule
Dear chapter members, At our August meeting, we developed a plan for this year’s chapter meetings. It promises to be another great year of CS education discussions. As usual, the meetings will be on Saturdays, hosted by the UW CSE Department in the lovely 6th Floor Commons room of the Paul Allen Center. However we have changed the start of our meetings to 10am so they do not take up the middle of your Saturday. The new meeting time is…
CS&IT Conference – July, 2012
The Computer Science & Information Technology (CS&IT) Conference is the only international conference specifically developed for K-12 computer science educators. This year the conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Irvine on July 9th and 10th, 2012, in Irvine, CA. To see the agenda, register for the conference, or reserve your reduced housing rate at the Hyatt, visit www.cstaconference.org.
UW CSE Inspirational Teachers
Two of our chapter members recently received a nice recognition. Hélène Martin and Lauren Bricker were fêted by the UW CSE department, having been nominated by current undergrads in that program as secondary teachers who inspired them in high school or community college classes. Read more about the award and the event here: UW CSE “Inspirational Teacher” dinner. Congratulations, Hélène and Lauren!
April 2012 Programming Contest Results
Another successful competition has come and gone! We had 27 teams participate from 12 schools, 12 judges from industry, and 10 advisors. Amazon.com was our official sponsor! They provided us with many judges, 17 pizzas from Zeek’s, tons of snacks and breakfast items, drinks, shirts for everyone, gift cards, and two kindles! Plus they let us use their facilities and provided us with a Tech Talk! We are very thankful for all their support of our contest. Contest Winners: Novice…
Spring Contest Lineup
Registration is now closed for this Saturday’s PS CSTA Spring Programming Contest, sponsored by Amazon.com. 26 teams from 12 Puget Sound area high schools will be participating. Read about the lineup here: http://goo.gl/0CtvL.
Spring Programming Contest
Registration is now open for the PS CSTA Spring Programming Contest ! Please join us on Saturday, April 28, for this great event. Register your team by April 22 to participate. Amazon.com is sponsoring the contest and it will be held at their South Lake Union Campus. See the Programming Contests page of our site for full details.
Teen online behaviors
Interesting piece from the NY Times about the research of Danah Boyd on teenage online behavior: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/fashion/danah-boyd-cracking-teenagers-online-codes.html (curiously cataloged in the “Fashion” section because it appeared in the NYT “Sunday Styles” section of the print edition)
Coursekit
I read something recently about a fairly new course management software platform called Coursekit. Today I see that they have received some VC funding: http://goo.gl/GE6Ed. Its avowed simplicity was appealing, and I have been meaning to check it out. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with it?
December Programming Contest Results
Thank you to everyone that participated in, helped out with, or judged the programming competition! This was our largest turnout to date with 15 schools bringing 43 total teams! Remember that the December contest is your practice for the April contest!! Contest Winners: Novice – 1st Place – Lakeside School – Alex Tong, Nat Mayer, Hannah Ruggiero Novice – 2nd Place – Garfield High School – Caitlin Rochlin, William Zhou, Lucy Spain Novice – 3rd Place – Lakeside School – Nikhil Khanna, Aran Khanna Advanced – 1st Place – Garfield High…