Next PSCSTA Meeting Sat, 3/15: App Inventor

• Topic: App Inventor hosted by Earl Bergquist
• Date: Saturday, March 15, 2014, 10 am - 12 noon followed by socializing and networking 12 − 1 pm (final details on our Spring Programming Contest will be discussed)
• Place: UW, Paul Allen Center for CSE, room 006 - downstairs labs where we previously did Scratch lab (Directions & Parking)

Everyone is building Apps, and they really appeals to our students.  MIT's App Inventor is a visual programming language for developing applications for devices that run the Android operating system.  In this workshop, Earl will lead us through several hands-on activities that show the power of App Inventor, provide us with ideas on how to incorporate App building into our courses, and present the local App Contest opportunities for our students.  Karen Manual from the Technology Alliance will be present to reveal the latest on their Student App Challenge.

Bring your laptop if you like or use the UW computers - App Inventor runs in the Browser, so there is no software to install; you only need a Google account.  There will be Android Tablets available to test your project or if you have an Android device of your own, simply install the "MIT AI2 Companion" from the Google Play Store ( complete instructions ).  

If you want a preview, here's Earl's App Inventor Pages:
- App Inventor 2.0 Tutorials & Resources
- Garfield HS's Summer Apps Class pages (trial of Apps for Good)
- App Inventor 1 Instructions (now outdated, but project ideas are good)

STEM Out! 2014, Feb 8 from 9:45am-2:30pm

PSCSTA is hosting the 5th annual STEM Out! Girl's Event on Saturday, February 8, 2014 from 9:45am-2:30pm, 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 2014 Flyer.

Next meeting: Sat, 1/11 : APCS A Labs

Lab materials

• Topic: APCS A Labs hosted by Hélène Martin
• Date: Saturday, January 11, 2014, 10 am - 12 noon followed by socializing and networking 12 − 1 pm
• Place: UW, Paul Allen Center for CSE, room 203 (Directions & Parking)

Starting in the 2014-2015 school year, AP CS A will no longer include a case study such as Gridworld.  Instead, teachers will be responsible for including a significant lab component in their courses but students will not be tested on their knowledge of specific pieces of code.  The College Board is in the process of developing three sample labs.

Join us to discuss the implications of the lab requirement, to look over the provided samples and to try some of the suggested exercises for yourself.

We will be meeting in room 203 on the 2nd floor.

Two clock hours will be provided for the workshop portion.

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!