Oct. 22 ECS PD

Goal

Our goal this 2011-2012 school year is to consolidate a pilot group of teachers who are using the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum.  The first follow-up PD is Sat. October 22nd (register online), and a second (probably covering Scratch) in late January or early February 2012.  

An exciting development is that we have been awarded an NSF CE21 grant, led by Lucia Dettori at DePaul, the goal of which is to replicate ECS here in Chicago.

Details and Map

When: Saturday, October 22, 9:30am  -3:30pm

Where: UIC campus

            851 S. Morgan St.

            Room 1000 (10th floor) of the Science and Engineering Office (SEO) building

Parking is available directly South in the lot on Morgan between Taylor and Roosevelt.  We'll give you a parking pass to pay for your parking.

From the parking lot walk North across Taylor, entering the SEO building from the South.  Take elevator to 10th floor and walk to room 1000 on the West end of the building.

Please DO bring a laptop if you have one available. Lunch will be provided.

Agenda

 9:30 -   9:50 Welcome, Model/Present Activity: Magic Square

 9:50 - 10:15 Unit 2 final project

10:15 - 10:45  Group exploration / preparation of activity

Break

10:45 - 11:15 10 min. presentation by each of 3 groups

11:15 - 12:00  Panel: Report from the trenches from teachers implementing ECS

Jenna Maser (Kenwood), Jake Baskin (Lindblom), Don Yanek (Northside), Jeff Solin (Northside), Dale Reed: moderator

12:00 - 12:30  Lunch

12:30 - 1:00 Lucia Dettori (DePaul): What the CE21 grant means

 1:00 - 1:40 Activity Prep for 3 groups

         Break

 1:40 - 2:40 Group presentations, 20 min. each for 3 groups [they teach it to the class]

              Evaluations as we go (Instructional Strategies)

 2:40 - 3:30 Wrap-up,                         Photo Release Form

                 Evaluation

Links

Activities we covered:

• • Age Guessing using Binary, Color-cards version, Jung Choo's Scratch simulation of the color-cards

  • Unit 2 Final Project: Mapping.  Google docs spreadsheet original version by Jeff Solin

  • (ECS curriculum pp. 99-100)

  • Computer Intelligence Activity (Paper-Rock-Scissors)  ECS p. 73: Turing Test

  • Dominating Set (Ice-Cream Town activity from CS Unplugged)  ECS p. 98  (Spanning Trees)

Activities we didn't get to:

• • Error detection using Parity (card-guessing activity from CS Unplugged)

  • Cornrow Curriculum page and web software

Other Content

• ECS Curriculum version 4.0

• Content and Teaching Strategies (from Summer ECS training)

• CS Unplugged