St. Vrain teachers get lesson on integrating computer scienc
Source: Amy Bounds
About 65 St. Vrain Valley teachers, counselors, librarians and coordinators attended a day-long symposium Monday at Longmont's Timberline K-8 to learn about integrating computer science principles into their lessons.
Axel Reitzig, program director of St. Vrain's Innovation Center, said the symposium kicks off the district's work to develop a K-12 computer science framework.
The framework would detail computer science standards at each grade level and suggest resources for teachers, he said. The district also is looking at providing more teacher training opportunities.
"We have to start getting some traction in making sure our students are learning computer science," he said. "We want our students to be active producers and problem solvers with technology, not just passive consumers."
The symposium also was designed to build on a recent collaboration between St. Vrain Valley and the University of Colorado at Boulder's "Engaging Computer Science in Traditional Education" project. Through the project, CU computer science graduate students were paired with St. Vrain teachers.
"I want participants to have a better understanding of what computing is," said project director Debra Goldberg. "It's not just sitting in boxes working on computers. Computing is everywhere. It's really becoming essential to have a basic understanding of how computing works."
The symposium was hosted by the "Engaging Computer Science in Traditional Education" program, St. Vrain Valley's Innovation Center and the National Center for Women and Information Technology.
Topics included "computational thinking" and why it's an essential skill, ways to incorporate computing into most any academic subject, and information about college and career pathways.
The day ended with teams from participating schools developing an action plan for further developing computer science education at their schools.
Speakers included Ruthe Farmer, chief strategy and growth officer for the National Center for Women and Information Technology, and Leysia Palen, founding chairwoman of CU's Department of Information Science.
Shaun Kane, assistant computer science professor and director of CU's Superhuman Computing Lab, talked about his research on making mobile devices easier to use, especially for people with disabilities.
He said students who are interested in helping people may find superhuman computing a good fit.
"If you want to change the world, this is a great way to do that," he said.
Monday's hands-on sessions included how to set up an obstacle course to teach students coding concepts and using a candy trading activity to illustrate epidemiology modeling and simulation.
Beth Cerrone, a learning technology coach at Silver Creek High School and a former computer science teacher, said some students who struggle in school find success in computer science.
"They're the hands-on, really mechanically inclined kinds of kids," she said. "Kids get really excited. It's a really fun thing to teach, and that problem solving ability is so marketable."
Fall River Elementary Principal Jennifer Guthals attended the symposium along with a team from her school.
"Our focus this year is to integrate technology and other aspects of STEM into every day learning," she said. "For computer science, if we don't get kids thinking about the possibility of coding, they may never consider it."
Longmont High counselor Karen McKay said she signed up for the conference to learn more about opportunities in computer science, noting there are many more computer science jobs available than there are U.S. computer science college graduates to fill those positions.
"As counselors, we're on the front lines of helping kids pick career pathways," she said. "We can take that information about computer science back to our schools."
Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, boundsa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/boundsa
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