Paul Allen Computing Challenge

Kate Starbird, a professor in the UW Human Centered Design and Engineering department, gave a terrific keynote on "data science" at last Saturday's contest.  At the end of her talk, she announced the Paul Allen Computing Challenge.  This exciting challenge will act as a bridge between our December and April contests.  Students will analyze real Twitter data related to Cyclone Phailin which hit India in mid-October 2013.  Participants who complete the challenge will receive great prizes including a Kindle pre-loaded with Paul Allen’s Memoir Idea Man: A Memoir by the Co-founder of Microsoft.

Please post this flyer in your classrooms and encourage your students to participate!

We encourage students to involve their friends who are not currently taking CS courses -- most of the challenges in Part 1 of the challenge can be completed with Excel or other non-programming tools.

Contest information and registration details can be found here.  The PACC is organized by a team of local groups that work with data science led by the Living Computer Museum and the PSCSTA.  Questions?  E-mail Justin Spielmann, Living Computer Museum Education Coordinator at justinS@ livingcomputermuseum.org

December 2013 Contest Results

246 students in 91 teams representing 24 schools joined us on Saturday, December 14th for a programming competition jointly hosted with UW CSE's DawgBytes program!  The event was generously sponsored by Microsoft.

Dozens of teachers and industry volunteers made this event possible.  All of your contributions were invaluable to making this event a success.  Thank you!

Congratulations to all of our participants!  Please share the results and pictures with your students.

Top represented schools were Kamiak and Issaquah with 11 teams each.

Download the contest materials zip file for the contest packet and sample data.

December 14th Programming Contest Registration Open

Registration is now open for the December 14th programming contest!  See the programming contests page for the registration form and more details.

The event, generously sponsored by TEALS and Microsoft, will take place at the University of Washington Paul Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering.  Check-in starts at 8:30am and the award ceremony will finish at around 2:30pm.  Students will solve programming problems in teams of 3 using the programming language of their choice.  They will also hear a brief talk by UW professor Kate Starbird.

The registration cost is $30 which includes lunch and snacks.  Need-based scholarships are available.

Registration closes when we reach 85 teams or on 12/9, whichever comes first.

Flyer

Next PSCSTA Meeting Sat, 11/16: Nifty Lessons

• Topic: Nifty Lessons hosted by Greg Kilpatrick
• Date: Saturday, November 16, 2013, 10 am - 12 n followed by socializing and networking 12 − 1 pm
• Place: UW, Paul Allen Center for CSE  (Directions & Parking)

Resources/Notes:

• Create an animal logic puzzle program (Mark E’s idea) - http://mamialmo.com/AnimaLogic/Animalogic.htm
• Animalogic Rules
• Cryptography (from Mark: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cryptoclub-Using-Mathematics-Secret/dp/156881223X, andhttp://www.cryptoclub.org/)
• Fibbonacci flowers (http://www.susanrevans.com/blog/2012/01/16/, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0, http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2277214)
• Handouts (.ZIP)

This month’s meeting is about Nifty Lessons — lessons that you think teach a CS or CS-related concept and actively engage students.  WE NEED YOU to make this session a success.  We are looking for volunteers to share a nifty lesson.  Some topic suggestions are:

• A cool Java program you build with the class in an AP-type course (examples: ball falling or roulette programs from CSE 142 or using Facebook API in 143)
• A CS Unplugged mini-lesson (it could be straight from CS Unplugged -- seeing it done is different from reading about it!)
• Something on an advanced topic like software engineering or HCI (design exercise)
• Something from a CS Principles type of course
• A fun activity that's peripherally related to CS (puzzles, ballparking, rubic's cubes)

Two clock hours will be provided for the workshop portion.

Contact Greg Kilpatrick if you are interested in sharing something nifty! 

Next meeting: Sat, 10/19 : Physical Computing Lab

Edit: workshop notes and resources posted.

Next PSCSTA Meeting: 

• Topic: Physical Computing Lab with Arduino hosted by Andy Davidson
• Date: Saturday, October 19, 2013
  10 am - 12 n followed by socializing and networking 12 − 1 pm
• Place: UW, Sieg Hall, Room 233 (Map)

This month’s meeting is about physical computing — the blending of computer software and electronics hardware to create interactive systems. We’ll explore the Arduino platform, a small, open-source, inexpensive but powerful micro-controller that is used by artists, designers, engineers, hobbyists, and students for prototyping many different kinds of interactive systems and environments.

No prior electronics experience is necessary, and novice as well as expert programmers should find something fun and interesting. In a hands-on session, you’ll learn to create basic Arduino applications and see how it might be used in K-12 environments. I’ll have some beginner as well as advanced projects to work on.

PLEASE RSVP: If you intend to participate, please RSVP to adavid7@uw.edu. Since this workshop involves hardware, I want to make sure I have enough systems for everyone. Please bring your own laptop to use and (if you have time) download and install the Arduino software on it before the workshop (it’s free!).

LOCATION: Note that we are NOT meeting in the usual location this month, but will be in Sieg Hall, which is very close to the CSE building.

Two clock hours will be provided for the workshop portion.

NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing

As many of you know, the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing honors young women who are active and interested in computing and encourages them to pursue their passions. Award recipients receive cool prizes as well as access to scholarships, internships, and a community of like-minded, technical young women. Girls with all levels of experience are encouraged to apply: the award recognizes aspirations as well as accomplishments!

Educators who endorse their student's applications are eligible to win the NCWIT Educator Award (Paul Osborne and Sam Procopio are past winners in Washington). Educator Award winners receive up to $1000 toward professional development. This year, educators also will be entered into a drawing for each student they endorse. The more students you encourage to apply, the more likely you are to win a laptop or tablet!

The award application at http://ncwit.org/awardWA/ is now open and will close October 31st. Please encourage girls you know to apply and pass on this message to parent newsletters, teachers and other groups who work with girls.

You can use this flyer and small poster to advertise.

Here are a few reasons you should encourage girls to apply:
- the application process gets girls thinking about the role of computing in their futures
- schools and school boards pay attention to courses that result in students getting awards
- the prizes are substantial
- 20 girls will be recognized in Washington state so there are a lot of awards to go around
- nominators become eligible for the educator award
- UW CSE will be hosting the award ceremony again and we'll use the opportunity to expose winners to more cool computer science

9/21: September meeting - Scratch 2.0

Edit: workshop notes and resources posted

Next PSCSTA Meeting:

• Topic: Scratch 2.0 hosted by Hélène Martin
• Date: Saturday, September 21st, 2013
  10am - noon followed by socializing and networking noon - 1pm
• Place: UW, Paul Allen Center for CSE  (Directions & Parking)

Scratch 2.0 offers several valuable improvements over prior versions.  Join us to learn about making programs more interactive with video and sound and to see how building new blocks can help students learn about abstraction.  Prior experience with Scratch is not required.  If you are an experienced Scratch teacher, please bring some assignment ideas to share with the group!  Teachers of all disciplines are invited -- bring your colleagues!

Two clock hours will be provided for the workshop portion.

This is a football game day so there may be extra traffic on campus.  Parking is provided free of charge by UW.  Please e-mail us if you did not receive parking instructions through the PSCSTA mailing list.

Upcoming events:

• NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing registration opens 9/18 and closes 10/31.  Encourage all tech-savvy high school girls you know to apply.
• Counselors for Computing on Friday October 11th 8:30am - 3pm.  Details and registration here.

10/11 at UW: Counselors for Computing

What: A conference for middle and high school counselors about computing.
When: Friday, October 11th 8:30am - 3pm
Where: UW Paul Allen Center for CSE
Why: More and more students are interested in computing and this is a great opportunity for counselors to learn how to guide them.
Registration

Please, please share this letter to counselors and this letter to administrators in your school or with your kids' schools!

Dear PSCSTA Members:

Greetings from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). I manage the Counselors for Computing program, which brings professional development to counselors in places where changes in CS education have implications for guidance. We are presenting a program at UW in conjunction with the UW Computer Science and Engineering department and the Washington School Counselor Association on October 11, 2013 and would appreciate your help in getting get the word out to counselors in your school.

In addition, if you as a CS teacher feel moved to speak to counselors (or if you can recommend someone else), let me know and we'll send an invitation along.

Regards,

Jane Krauss
NCWIT Counselors for Computing
jane.krauss@ncwit.org
www.ncwit.org

2013-2014 calendar posted

Our meeting schedule for the year is now live!  We have an exciting series of hands-on workshops, fun discussions and students events lined up.

Meetings will continue to be held from 10am to noon on Saturdays in the 6th floor Commons of the Paul Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering.  Socializing and networking will occur noon to 1pm.

Clock hours will be provided for the workshop portion!

Our first meeting is coming up on September 21st.  We will send out another reminder as well as parking instructions next week.

The detailed schedule is posted at http://www.pscsta.org/p/meetings.html.

Here is a preview of meeting dates and topics covered (blue events are for students):
Sep 21, 2013 Scratch 2.0
Oct 19, 2013 Physical Computing Lab
Nov 16, 2013 Nifty Lessons
Dec 14, 2013 WINTER PROGRAMMING CONTEST 
Jan 11, 2014 AP CS Labs
Feb  8, 2014 STEM OUT!
Mar 15, 2014 AppInventor Lab
Apr ??, 2014 SPRING PROGRAMMING CONTEST 
May 17, 2014 State of CS Education
Jun 21, 2014 End of Year Wrap Up & Social  

We will discuss the date of the April contest during our September meeting.  Thanks to all of you who have provided feedback through the member survey.

We encourage you to add the PSCSTA meeting calendar to your own calendar by following the instructions at http://www.pscsta.org/p/meetings.html#add_calendar

Online Practice Problem Resources

The following list of online resources for student practice problems have been added to the PSCSTA.org Resources page.  I was aware of Coding.bat and PracticeIT, but found Programr.com today and thought I would make sure these were shared with all.

• http://www.programmr.com/ (Java, C#, C++, Android, Python, Processing, HTML, and many others)
• http://practiceit.cs.washington.edu/index.jsp (Java)
• http://codingbat.com/ (Java and Python)

If you are aware of other such resources, please share and I will update our listing.

Greg Kilpatrick

2013 Scholarship Winners!

We would like to congratulate the following students as the 2013 scholarship recipients from the Puget Sound Computer Science Teachers Association:

Angela Rocchi

Tahoma Senior High School

CS Teacher: Crystal Hess

Judy Zhou

Garfield High School

CS Teacher: Earl Bergquist

Mary Martin

Holy Names Academy

CS Teacher: Sam Procopio

Thank you to everyone for your entries. Look for our next scholarship offering in the spring of 2014.

Tentative 2013-2014 schedule and member survey

Happy summer, everyone!

We had a productive meeting on June 22nd during which we put together a tentative schedule for next year:

• Sept - Scratch lab
• Oct - AP CS Labs lab
• Nov - Nifty Lessons (volunteer through membership survey)
• 14/Dec - Winter contest at UW
• Jan - Physical Computing lab 
• 8/Feb - STEM out! with Amazon Hoppers
• Mar - AppInventor lab 
• Apr - Spring contest at ??
• May - State of CS Education 
• Jun - Planning for 2014-2015

The finalized schedule including dates will be published in August.  Please fill out our short member survey to provide feedback on the proposed sessions and to help pick a date for the spring contest.

During our meeting, we decided to put together committees to formalize responsibilities around events, finances and communications.  This will streamline our processes and help maximize our impact.  We hope many of you will choose to participate in a committee!  Committee participation will not be a huge time commitment and is a great way to contribute to our community.  You can volunteer in the member survey described above.

Detailed meeting notes are available here.

June Meeting: End of Year Wrap Up - Saturday June 22nd

Next PSCSTA Meeting: 

• Topic: End of Year Wrap Up hosted by our officers
• Date: Saturday, June 22nd, 2013
• Time: 10am - Noon followed by Noon - 1pm socializing & Networking 
• Place: UW, Paul Allen Center for CSE Rm 691 (Directions & Parking)

Discuss our events this past year and how we can improve on them next year - bring your ideas & suggestions.  Also discuss CS Educational opportunities & plans for the summer and upcoming school year.

And hold our annual elections; you need not be present to be elected ;-).

Upcoming events:

• CS4HS an exploration of Computer Science for Math & Science teachers at UW on Wed-Friday, July 22-24th.  Details and registration: here
• Let us know if there are any others to post! 

PSCSTA Scholarship Reminder

This post is to serve as a reminder to all students wanting to apply for the $500 scholarship. Applications are due Friday, May 24th. Please check out the scholarship tab for more information.

May Meeting: Building a CS Program of Study - Saturday, May 18th

Next PSCSTA Meeting:

• Topic: Building a CS Program of Study: Beyond Intro & AP CS hosted by Brett Wortzman
• Date: Saturday, May 18th, 2013
• New Time: 10am - Noon followed by Noon - 1pm socializing & Networking 
• Place: UW, Paul Allen Center for CSE  (Directions & Parking)

The Intro/AP model for introducing high school students to CS is well-developed.  But how can we reach students who might shy away from these courses, or engage students beyond AP?  How can we introduce students to the full breadth of opportunities and experiences in computer science?  This roundtable discussion will focus on ideas for courses to interest students before, beyond, and beside Intro and AP.

Upcoming events:

• CS Review day at UW for AP CS and UW in the High School CSE 142 students on Saturday May 4th 1pm - 4pm.  Details and registration here 
• AppDay is Thursday, May 23rd at Rainier Beach HS, details & registration at AppDay.org
• Deadline for our PSCSTA Scholarship Applications is Friday, May 24th - get them in early
• CodeDay Seattle is May 25th-26th, details at seattle.codeday.org

Spring 2013 Programming Contest Report

We had 100 students in 40 teams representing 19 schools join us Saturday for our programming contest hosted and sponsored Amazon.com! 

Dozens of teachers and industry volunteers made this possible by judging problems, registering students, trekking up & down stairs passing out food & T-shirts, hunting for power cables and more!  Special thanks to our precision judges and Amazon.com staff: coordinator, Elton Pinto and speaker, Gus Lopez. All of your contributions were invaluable to making this event a big success.  Again thank you all so much.

Congratulations to all of our participants!  Here are our top winners:

• Novice 1st: Rebecca W., Ryan M., & Franklin S. from Garfield High School
• Novice 2nd: Nicholas LS. & Akshay S. from Lakeside High School
• Novice 3rd: Andy C. & Paul S. from STEM High School (LWSD)

• Advanced 1st: Colin W. from Tahoma High School
• Advanced 2nd: William B. & Ben F. from Garfield & Nova High Schools
• Advanced 3rd: Alex E. who is home schooled.

Top schools represented were Issaquah & Garfield (5 teams each), Kings (4 Teams), and Bonnie Lake & Bothel (4 Teams each).  Thank you to all the teachers who helped promote our event.

Please share results and pictures with your students!
- Contest Results PDF
- Photos!
- Contest Problems & Data: PSCSTA Spring 2012 Contest.zip

In addition, proceeds from our contests will be shared by awarding two $500 PSCSTA scholarships available to students who have participated in at least one of PSCSTA's computing events and want to go beyond their current understanding of computing.  Please pass this announcement to your participating students - all the details including the application can be found at this link and under the "Scholarships" tab of PSCSTA.org:
   http://www.pscsta.org/p/scholarships.html

Saturday April 27th Programming Contest is now taking Wait List Registrations

In the first day, we have maxed out the number of teams for the Programming Contest!  But we encourage any students interested to register to be placed on our wait list (here).  If teams cancel or fail to have their payment received by April 11th, we will invite teams to join the competition by email in the order they are received.  Good luck!

For those Registered teams and their Teachers/Advisors: 
- Make sure that the $30 registration fee is mailed in early so it will be received by Thursday, 11th April. Please send checks made out to PSCSTA with team member names to:    PSCSTA (Puget Sound Computer Science Teachers Association)
    4616 25th AVE NE #573
    SEATTLE, WA 98105
- The competition will be held at the same Amazon.com location as last year:
Amazon.com Dawson North
345 Boren Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
   - Street or lot parking is available in the neighborhood.  
   - Enter the north building from the south side under the sky bridge.

Full details at the Programming Contest tab above. And contact the PSCSTA Planning Team at pscsta-planning@googlegroups.com if you have any questions.

Upcoming events:

• AWEsome Evening Celebrating Women in Engineering Monday, April 1st.  details linked here
• CS Review day at UW for AP CS and UW in the High School CSE 142 students on Saturday May 4th 1pm - 4pm.  Details and registration here 
• AppDay is Thursday, May 23rd at Rainier Beach HS, details & registration at AppDay.org
• CodeDay Seattle is May 25th-26th, details at seattle.codeday.org

Programming Contest Details and our Next Meeting is Saturday, March 23rd

Registration for the April 27th PSCSTA Programming Contest will open Monday, March 25th at 9:30am.  We are limited to 30 teams this Spring, so only the first 30 registered teams can attend, any thereafter will be notified and placed on a wait list in case the first teams have not paid by Thursday, April 11th - after that wait list teams will be invited accordingly.  Mark your calendar and prepare your students for registration.  Cost is $30 per team, and a number of need-based scholarships are available.  The latest details and the registration link will appear on our Programming Contest tab .

Next PSCSTA Meeting: 

• Topic: SICSCE Report and Exploring CS & CS Principles Update hosted by Stuart Reges
• Date: Saturday, March 23rd, 2013
• New Time: 10am - Noon followed by Noon - 1pm socializing & Networking 
• Place: UW, Paul Allen Center for CSE  (Directions & Parking)

A report on what was going on at the annual SIGCSE convention held in early March along with the latest news about the two courses being proposed for high school computer science (Exploring CS and CS Principles).   
 
Other Upcoming events: 

• AWEsome Evening Celebrating Women in Engineering Monday, April 1st.  details linked here
• AppDay is Thursday, 23rd May at Rainier Beach HS, details & registration at AppDay.org

AWEsome Evening Celebrating Women in Engineering Hosted by Amazon.com

Amazon's Women in Engineering group is hosting the 1st annual AWEsome Evening Celebrating Women in Engineering Monday, April 1st from 5-8pm at South Lake Union.

Amazon would love for you and your family to join us for an evening celebrating women in technology! This event is free!

Come learn about how women are impacting Amazon and technology. This event is open to everyone. At the event you will experience:

• Amazon product and service showcases
• A talk by Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College and influential leader for women in technology
• Meet with technical women at Amazon

Register now to reserve your spot at: http://awesomeevening.eventbrite.com where you will also find more information on the event's location and parking options.

You can download a PDF of the flyer at http://tinyurl.com/a45z2g4

CodeDay Seattle is this weekend, Sat 16th Feb

CodeDay is a great opportunity for high school students to apply their programming skills and learn to make games & apps with fellow students in the Seattle area.  PSCSTA officer, Hélène Martin will be speaking and this event is organized by two Garfield HS Students!  Here's the Details:

Come to CodeDay Seattle this Presidents Day weekend! Pitch ideas, form teams, and build amazing apps and games as quickly as possible!

CodeDay Seattle is a 24 hour hackathon for students. It's a great opportunity to meet other students, learn new technologies, and have an incredibly fun weekend. We've lined up some fantastic speakers and workshops, and have great prizes from our awesome sponsors.

The event begins at noon on Saturday the 16th and goes until noon on Sunday the 17th, hosted at the HUB Seattle. Registration is only $20, and food and drinks are provided. All you need to bring is a laptop and your enthusiasm.

Find out more and register at seattle.codeday.org .  

STEM Out! 2013, Feb 9 from 9:30am-3:00pm

PSCSTA is hosting the 4th annual STEM Out! Girl's Event on Saturday, February 9, 2013 from 9:30am-3:00pm, sponsored and led by Amazon.com's Women in Engineering.

This event is to encourage girls from grades 7-12 to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math careers! It's a FREE event and more information/registration can be found here:

pscsta.org/p/stem-out.html

Please help us spread the word and encourage your girls to participate!!

Download a PDF flyer by clicking: Stem Out 2013 Flyer.

January Meeting: Physical Computing, Sat 1/12 at 11am

(Edit: notes posted)

Our next meeting on physical computing is this Saturday, January 12th.  Please note our updated time!  We will meet 11am - 1pm to accommodate our speakers.

Also note our location change: we will be meeting in SIEG 425, the Human-Centered Design & Engineering Design Lab (SIEG is just a short walk from CSE).  Andy Davidson will be showing us how he has used physical computing using Arduino and related tools to engage students.  The session will be hands-on and highly interactive including demonstrations of student projects.

We are also working on confirming other presenters.

Physical computing is about creating hardware and software systems that interact with the physical world.  Examples might include art pieces that react to the amount of noise around them or sensor systems that monitor soil moisture and send out a text message when a plant needs to be watered.  It's a great way to motivate students to consider STEM!