CS4HS Chicago 2012

See online application. 

There is no charge for this training.  Preference will be given to active CS / Math / Science high school teachers, though others are welcome to apply.  Space is limited to the first 30 registrants.

Schedule:

Tuesday June 19:  The Processing programming language.       Leader: Ursula Wolz.

Processing

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations and interactions. Initially developed to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing also has evolved into a tool for generating finished professional work. Today, there are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning, prototyping, and production.  (From the Processing web site.)  Processing can be used to program the Arduino, which will be used in Wednesday's session (see below.)  

To prepare for this session please install Processing on your laptop, using the web site linked above.

Ursula Wolz

Ursula Wolz was the Principal Investigator for the NSF "Broadening Participation in Computing via Community Journalism for Middle Schoolers" program, and was the Principal Investigator of a Microsoft Research project on Multidisciplinary Game Development. She is a recognized computer science educator with a broad range of publications who has taught students including disabled children, urban teachers, and elite undergraduates for over 30 years.  She is a co-founder of the Interactive Multimedia Program at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ).  She has a background in computational linguistics, with a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia University, a Master Degree in Computing in Education from Columbia Teachers College, and a bachelor's degree from MIT, where she was part of Seymour Papert's Logo group at the very beginning of research on constructivist computing environments.  She has taught programming for over 30 years using nearly every language imaginable, and this year is teaching at Olin.

Please fill out the online Evaluation Form at the end of today's session.

See the Processing page with links to Ursula Wolz' presentation notes, sample programs and examples created by participants.

Wednesday June 20:  High-Low Tech workshop. Fall in love with technology!

          Leaders Sam Jacoby, David Mellis, Hannah Perner-Wilson, using the LilyPad Arduino and etextiles

High-Low Tech workshop at MIT

High-Low Tech, a research group at the MIT Media Lab, integrates high and low technological materials, processes, and cultures. They engage diverse audiences in designing and building their own technologies by situating computation in new cultural and material contexts, and by developing tools that democratize engineering. They believe that the future of technology will be largely determined by end-users who will design, build, and hack their own devices, and their goal is to inspire, shape, support, and study these communities. To this end, they explore the intersection of computation, physical materials, manufacturing proecesses, traditional crafts, and design.

To prepare for this session please install the Arduino software on your laptop.

Sam Jacoby

Sam Jacoby is a master’s student in the High-Low Tech research group at the MIT Media Lab. He’s interested in the relationships between traditional hand-work and computation, particularly using unusual materials and substrates. He wants to create contexts in which people can naturally connect craft and digital construction. Sam is a fine printer and holds an A.B. in computer science from Harvard.

David Mellis

David Mellis is a first year PhD student in Leah Buechley's group, High-Low Tech, at the MIT Media Lab. His research interest is the relationship between digital information and physical objects, applied to manufacturing, electronics, and programming. He wants to create tools and examples that help people to design, build, and program electronic devices.  Before coming to the Media Lab, He earned a master's in interaction design at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (Italy) and taught at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (Denmark). He is one of the creators of Arduino, an open-source hardware and software platform for electronic prototyping.

Hannah Perner-Wilson

Hannah Perner-Wilson combines conductive materials and craft techniques, developing new styles of building electronics that emphasize materiality and process. She received a BA in Industrial Design from the University for Art and Industrial Design Linz  and an MA in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where she was a student in the High-Low Tech research group. Since 2006 Hannah has collaborated with Mika Satomi, forming the collective KOBAKANT. In 2009, as research fellows at the Distance Lab in Scotland, KOBAKANT published the website titled How To Get What You Want, where they share their textile sensor designs and DIY approach to E-Textiles.    

Please fill out the online Evaluation Form at the end of today's session.

See the Lilypad Protosnap Notes page.  

Thursday June 21 (9:30-1:30): How to teach [CS], Best Lessons  

• 1. How to teach [CS]  (20 min.)

     1. A taste of a CS Faculty Commons, modeled after www.disciplinarycommons.org

     2. Relationship between self-improvement & self-disclosure

        1. "Deprivitizing" teaching, meeting on common ground for the purpose of sharing practices and artifacts.

        2. In a small group, answer the question: "How did you get into teaching CS?"

        3. Brainstorm in your group on teaching practices (e.g. class discussion, inquiry-based learning, problems, assignments, lecture, ...) and artifacts (homework, programs, presentations, ...) that you use, that are possible to pass on to others.  Put this on a large poster to share with all.  

        4.  

     3. Reflections on 1st year of ECS Panel Moderator:Don Yanek, with Baker Franke, Jeff Solin (possibly others)

     4. Includes discussion of MOS certification (20 min.)

     5. POGIL: Process Oriented Guided Instructional Learning   (~20 min)

     6. 12 minute video by Andrei Straumanis at TEDx San Miguel de Allende; discussion on extent this can work in intro CS courses.

     7. How is this same/different from what we do in ECS? 

  2. Best Activity / Assignments / Tools, Exploring Computer Science (ECS) extension lessons:

• • 1. Tools:

       1. Hands-on using Piazza for creating questions & answers (Don Yanek, Northside).  (~10 min.) 

       2. Using Google docs to discuss existing content: demo & explanation (Jeff Solin, Northside)  (~10 min.) 

    2. Activities

• • • 1. Hands-on Cup-and-string networking    Baker Franke (U. of Chicago Lab Schools)    (~40 min.)

      2. App Inventor text messaging description  Baker Franke  (U. of Chicago Lab Schools)     (~10 min.)

      3. Lo-Fi Prototyping description.  Don Yanek (Northside College Prep)  (~10 min.)

      4. Hands-on intro. to the Pico Board. You will need to have Scratch installed prior to the workshop.  Jeff Solin  (Northside)   (~40 min.)

         1. Here is Jeff's daughter Sunshine (age 9) explaining her first scratch program

• 3. Wrap-up, final online evaluations, door prizes (must be present to win) (~10 min)

See the "Best Lessons" notes page.

Future Topics

Think about any other topics you would like covered and send us an email (or create a comment below).  Some topics that have already been suggested are shown below.  Note that some topics would be suitable for either an extended or a mini tutorial.

Chicago CSTA leadership team: 

Don Yanek (dgyanek@cps.edu), Jeff Solin (bsolin@cps.edu), Baker Franke (bfranke@ucls.uchicago.edu), Dale Reed (reed@uic.edu), Ron Greenberg (greenberg.ron@gmail.com)

A shortcut to this page is bit.ly/cs4hs2012

Major funding provided by: