ISTE2013+-+SIGCT+Forum+and+Playground

> SIGCT Forum and Playground for ISTE 2013 > (updated 4/12/2013:2:00pm CT) The mission of SIGCT is to advance the practice of teaching computing and computer science in PK-12 education that meets needs both for all students and for those wishing to study some aspect of the discipline in more depth. ||  ||
 * **SIGCT (Computing Teachers)**
 * The SIGCT Forum and Playground** are focused around ideas, issues and practical examples which support our mission of teaching and learning about computing. Our members come from a very diverse educational component – many are teachers in the classroom, but we also have teacher educators, media specialists, some in education services (such as consultants or providers of outside content). Our membership draws from many of the 22 ISTE SIGs. Our members are looking for ways to to encourage the creative use the technology including its modification and adaptation, by students to solve interesting, relevant and new problems in the classroom. In this way we meet our mission or teaching and learning about computing.

Our intent this year is to again collaborate with one or two other ISTE SIGs for either the Forum or the Playground or both. > For ISTE 2013 Forum and Playground, the focus will be on Computational Thinking (CT). The knowledge, skills, dispositions and vocabulary are defined and exemplified in three documents from ISTE's Computational Thinking page of resources. (includes knowledge, skills and dispositions) >

__Time and location:__ TBD with room holding about 200, the forum would be 2 hours long __Forum Title__: TBD __Description of Forum for program:__ Computational Thinking - how does infusing the nine core competencies rooted in computer science work in the classroom?
 * FORUM**

Contacts:
 * Karen North || Lucianne Brown ||
 *  || Lucianne Sweder Brown  ||

__More detailed Description of forum__: Computational Thinking will underlie whatever speakers present and thus will be the focus for this year’s two-hour forum. Two possible plans: Plan A:
 * Have two speakers on either one or two topics; for each topic, the CT knowledge, skills, dispositions and vocabulary would be made clear
 * One possible topic is CyberSecurity and the CyberPatriot competition; the first speaker might focus on the issues of CyberSecurity and its relationship to CT and to computer science (from which CT has been drawn); the second speaker could focus on the CyberPatriot competition and any other competitions which involve high school students
 * While the competition directly involves high school, the speakers would provide some possibilities to extend the discussion about CyberSecurity and possibly even aspects of the competition into the lower grades.

Plan B:
 * Have a lead speaker (possibly Jim Brazell from San Antonio or Carolyn Sykora from ISTE?) for about 15 minutes. During this time, the speaker would provide examples of CT Core competencies in various curricular and cross-curricular projects.
 * The rest of the time the audience divided into six groupswould circulate about every 15 minutes to another Inspiration Station. Each of these Inspiration Stations would be a team of students presenting their project highlighting the CT core CS concepts that are emphasized.

For Plan B, teams of students (ideally 2-4 per team) would submit their projects > Here are a few Elementary School level concepts that Karen N pulled from the CT definition for a poster she did at ISTE 2012 > __General ISTE description about Forums__: Highlight successful ed tech programs, projects, lessons, ideas and concepts. Forum topics should help attendees better understand the work and focus of the hosting SIG(s) > __Content of student projects - This applies to both Forum (if we include 1 or more student projects) and Playground events__ > As suggested in the brief description just above, we're looking for teams of students not only using (consuming) technology but also creating and adapting technology to solve problems. Both the innovation and the computing components are brought together in this way. If you think about teams of students involved in projects like a science fair or student poster at some kind of event, then we're thinking in the same ballpark. > > In recent years we've had student groups involved in several programs in robotics at all grade levels (USFIRST and 4-H) and we've had student groups involved in developing game programs in Scratch to help younger students learn math and logic and another group of middle school students demonstrating their efforts in various creative aspects of computer science and information technology. Similarly we've had groups of students from San Diego's High Tech HS present some of their tech-based projects. STEM-oriented projects (which includes computing and information technology) are particularly welcome. >
 * as part of their submission would identify from this list of CT core concepts, which their project incorporates: data collection, data analysis, data representation, problemdecomposition, abstraction, algorithms and procedures, automation, parallelization and simulation; the intent would be
 * that their projects exemplify at least 3-4 of these CT core concepts;
 * we might allow for identifying 1 or 2 CT core concepts that are heavily involved and identifying a few others which are involved “a little”.
 * also as part of their submission, the team would identify one or more of the CT dispositions exemplified by their project; this list of dispositions include confidence with complexity, persistence with difficult problems, tolerance for ambiguity, dealing with open ended problems, ability to communicate with others and through teamwork achieve a common goal
 * Write a Sequence of Steps - Algorithmic Thinking (CT: Algorithms & Procedures)
 * Look for Patterns - Logically Organizing and Analyzing Data (CT: Data analysis)
 * Attention to Detail - Generalization and Abstraction (CT: Abstraction, Problem Decomposition)
 * Plan by Design - Analyze, Illustrate, Demonstrate, Implement, Verify, Debug (CT: Data Representation, higher level thinking skills and dispositions)

> __Time and location:__ half day, TBD, with a location in heavy traffic with wall space if possible, similar to San Diego __Area Layout__: similar to San Diego: will likely allow for 2 presentation areas with interactive whiteboards along with an area for 6 tables used as project demonstration areas __Playground Title__: Lights, Action, Computational Thinking Everywhere! > __Playground Description for Program:__ Student teams share how they create and produce technologies that enhance learning in STEM and computer science and focus on Computational Thinking knowledge, skills, vocabulary and dispositions. Come and interact with our students from different organizations and programs.
 * PLAYGROUND**

Contact: >> Informal plan: The playground would be similar to last year's: student projects and presentations with which attendees would interact. These can be in the form of outreach, such as the 4-H presenters demonstrating curricula developed for 4-H'ers and such as the USFIRST robotics teams demonstrate with their robotics projects for each of their programs: Jr FLL, FLL, FTC and FRC. This year perhaps we can establish the presentations earlier so that we can publish a schedule of events.
 * Joe Kmoch ||  ||
 *  ||  ||

Several other things:
 * We should try to find some teams local to San Antonio; I hope this can include a team or two from the CyberPatriot competition teams; this could be handled by someone else, but Joe and the other person (Charmaine or Karen?) would need to coordinate so organizations and team would have a single point of contact (one of the 2 or 3 of us)
 * We should approach at least Lego to be a “sponsor” (though ISTE needs to deal with anything contractual). I’m thinking that as sponsor, they could talk for maybe 5-10 minutes about their commitment to CT principles in the Forum, provide a few decent door prizes (maybe a Lego NXT kit or two), and have a table at the Playground with some good demos (but no direct selling) like ISTE 2012.
 * Perhaps we could have a “raffle” during the Playground where we’d pull out names maybe at 11am and at 2pm to win some kind of neat door prize. The raffle entry could be a “passport” that each participant would receive – they’d have to visit at least one robotics team and at least 2 other tables, get a sticker on their passport and then turn it in – something

__Informal playground description:__ The playground will not be as rigid as the Forum because conference attendees will come throughout the day and stay anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more. Student teams are encouraged to have a brief presentation which also includes engaging visitors in what they do. In the past student teams have demonstrated robots and then asked visitors to try controlling them; one group using 4-H curriculum "Junk Drawer Robotics" made robots out of common materials and encouraged visitors to sit down and try working on one; another time a group demonstrating an online robotics course had visitors sit and try this out.

__General ISTE description of Playgrounds__: Playgrounds are day-long events that provide educators with opportunities to "play" with interactive technologies for creativity and learning.

Based on discussion with ISTE, we will have Playground B and also are allotted two Student Showcase positions in the adjoining area so that we have even more possibilities for highlighting what we in SIGCT are all about.
 * As of 4/12/2013 here are some more specific plans**

Playground B - two demo areas one w/smartboard technology, the other with an large whiteboard and six 4'x4' tables.
 * A team led by Cliff Zintgraff and Sandy ?? will take one demo area and two tables for cybersecurity-oriented activities. The demo area will include one of the CyberPatriot student competition teams from San Antonio explaining the competition and showing what this competition entails. One of the tables will be highlighting the ITSA program (dealing with IT and cybersecurity areas) and the other table will highlight the IT programs at several of the San Antonio high schools


 * The other demo area will be used by UT-Austin Computer Science Outreach Roadshow


 * Of the 4 remaining tables:
 * one will be led by Michel Tempel and the Logo Foundation at MIT and he will demonstrate some of the technologies he'll talk about in the Forum
 * the other three will be portioned out for these possible activities
 * 4-H CS&IT/STEM program activities (up to 2 tables based on previous years activities)
 * Boys & Girls clubs CS&IT/STEM activities
 * Girl Scouts activities
 * First Lego League Jr (their competition revolves around research for a poster)
 * the ARIS student group
 * One additional table for the Cliff Zintgraff group


 * Student Showcase
 * Heidi Williams daughter (Bailey?) will be demonstrating some Scratch programs she's been writing for her school
 * the other Showcase is open at the moment


 * Those we intend to involve for 2013:**
 * **Heidi Williams**; STRETCh Instructor, Jackson, WI < [|www.stretchinstructor.com] >
 * **Jim Brazell**; consultant and speaker about STEAM (STEM + Arts) , Joules Webb , Chris xxx , and Carolyn Green 


 * **__USFIRST Robotics__**: Richard Sisk  from San Diego will help identify one or more from USFIRST who should be able to identify teams to display/demonstrate their robotics
 * Richard Sisk has indicated he will help identify a point person for USFIRST in the San Antonio (11/21/2012)
 * Norm Morgan, FRC 2468, Austin, TX; bringing FRC and maybe an FTC team
 * Michael Henry 


 * **__4-H__:**Steven Worker 
 * Steven from CA has identified two contacts and also copied them on the email.of 11/16/2012
 * - Toby Lepley, State 4-H Staff, t-lepley@tamu.edu
 * - Kevin Wentzel, Volunteer & Coordinator of the Texas 4-H Technology Team, kevin.wentzel@hp.com


 * **UT-Austin Computer Science Outreach Roadshow**
 * Tiffany Grady 
 * Lori McNabb 
 * Two projects
 * Their Roadshow designed and run by college undergrad CS majors visiting high schools (also middle?). Members of this roadshow would take one of the demonstration areas and talk with visiting convention attendees about the content of their shows for students, engaging many of these visitors in some of those activities. The intent would be to show visiting teachers and school officials what is involved and hopefully identify their usefulness in attracting kids into computer science classes.
 * Project Engage which seeks to get more high schools kids into computer science and to train more teachers; I'd like to see this as part of the Roadshow exhibit and if there are students involved in its development and implementation, it would be grand to have them talking about it along with others.
 * As much as possible, our "presenters" in the Playground should be students from elementary, middle, secondary and college.

> **TCEA**- Karen North and Charmaine Bentley > > **__for later contact:__** > **__Boys & Girls Clubs__:** Mary Grybeck  > > **__Girl Scouts of America__:** Tommi Tilden  > **__unavailable:__** > **__High Tech High__:** Lisa Davis <ldavis@hightechhigh.org> > Lisa has expressed an interested in bringing one project team to be at this conference. > as of 11/16 her travel budget is non-existent so High Tech HS won't be able to join us
 * particularly the TCEA Robotics Outreach group