| Wednesday, July 6 |
| 8:00-9:00 |
Breakfast: Gates 6121
Registration: Gates 5th floor at the SCS Welcome Desk
|
| 9:00-9:30 |
Welcome and Survey - Tom Cortina and Jeannette M. Wing |
| 9:30-11:00 |
CS Unplugged –Tom Cortina
Can you teach computer science principles without a computer? Yes, you can if you use the activities from the Computer Science Unplugged book. These hands-on, fun activities are designed to illustrate fundamental principles of data representation, compression, sorting, parallel processing and algorithms for kids and adults. We will show you how easy it is to use some of these activities in your classroom.
|
| 11:00-11:30 |
Break |
| 11:30-12:30 |
Programming Visually – Tom Cortina
Students first learning to program often struggle with syntax. Some
students are visual learners and have trouble understanding computational
ideas presented as lines of computer code. This session will introduce a
tool called Raptor that allows students to build programs visually using
flowcharts so they can clearly see conditions, loops, and subroutines and
how they work computationally, avoiding the initial syntax hurdle.
|
| 12:30-1:30 |
Lunch |
| 1:30-2:30 |
Keynote Speaker: Eric Nyberg, Language Technologies Institute
We'll spend an hour with Prof. Eric Nyberg who led a team of researchers at the university's Language Technologies Institute, to assist IBM in the development of key aspects of the architecture and methodology that led to the stunning win by Watson in the Jeopardy! Challenge this year. |
| 2:30-2:45 |
Travel to Google |
| 2:45-4:45 |
Tour of Google's New Home in
Pittsburgh & CS Careers Panel
We will get to tour Google's cool new home at Bakery Square in Pittsburgh! Also in this session, a panel of Google engineers will tell you what it's like to work for Google and what preparation students need to study computer science in college and pursue a career in computing. The session will include time for Q&A.
|
| 4:45-5:00 |
Travel back to CMU |
| 5:00-6:00 |
Dinner |
| Thursday, July 7 |
| 8:00-9:00 |
Breakfast |
| 9:00-10:30 |
Can Computers Solve Everything? – Tom Cortina
It's surprising to learn there are some problems that computers can't
solve no matter how powerful they are. Of the problems computers can
solve, can they solve them all quickly? How can we tell? In this session,
we will examine some interesting computational problems and see why
computers will need millions of years to solve them or will not be able to
solve them at all. |
| 10:30-11:00 |
Break, Discussions |
| 11:00-12:30 |
Lab 1: Problem Solving with Robots –Tom Lauwers
In this hands-on workshop session you will be introduced to the Finch, a
new robot that opens up a number of potentially exciting and motivating
assignments. During the session you will be shown how to program the Finch
and challenged to both solve existing assignments and brainstorm new ones.
The Finch is a product of the CREATE lab at Carnegie Mellon. |
| 12:30-1:30 |
Lunch |
| 1:30-3:00 |
Lab 2: Introduction to App Inventor - Dave Feinberg
Motivation for students can increase by showing students how to build something computationally that they can use, like on their own phone. In this lab, we'll explore App Inventor from Google to create a few simple apps for Android phones. No phone is required, since we can use their simulator to view the results. But if you have an Android phone, you will be able to try it out live.
|
| 3:00-3:30 |
Break |
| 3:30-5:00 |
Curriculum: Exploring Computer Science - Gail Chapman
In this session, we will take a look at the curriculum for a new course
that was developed for high school classrooms in Los Angeles Unified
School District as an instruction tool for introducing students to the
"computational thinking" of computer science. We will examine some of the
course topics and curriculum materials. The complete curriculum is
available at the website for the Computer Science Teachers Association
(CSTA). |
| 5:00-6:00 |
Dinner |
| Fri Jul 8 |
| 8:00-9:00 |
Breakfast |
| 9:00-10:00 |
Diversity in Computing, CS Roadshows –Carol Frieze & Students
In this session we will focus on one very special outreach strategy:
Computer Science Roadshows. Students from the School of Computer
Science will demonstrate the Roadshow we have developed for K-12 children
and invite YOU to take part! |
| 10:00-12:00 |
Workshop Exercise
We will break into small groups to come up with answers for some important
problems concerning computer science education at the high school level.
Groups will present their findings in the afternoon. |
| 12:00-1:00 |
Lunch and a Movie: History of Computing
History in a CS class? Why not! Computers have played a key role in some
major historical events, and while we have lunch, we'll watch a History
Channel program that shows how computers helped save the Census, win a
World War, and fly us to the Moon. |
| 1:00-2:30 |
Workshop Exercise Presentations |
| 2:30-3:30 |
Changing the view of CS in HS: Group Discussion – Carol Frieze and Tom Cortina
Tom & Carol will lead an open town-hall style meeting where we can discuss
what issues teachers face when teaching CS in high schools and share
strategies on how we can go about making a change for the better. |
| 3:30-4:00 |
Wrapup, Surveys, Prizes |
