CS Institute 2020
The CS Institute is changing in 2 big ways this year: First, it is going online. Because of all the unknowns around the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision was made in April to take CS Institute & Summer SPARK online. This opened up the opportunity to go from 2 days of intense work to a broader, 4-week experience starting July 6. We borrowed the idea of spreading out over several weeks from the MIT Learning Creative Learning PD.
Second, it is being planned in conjunction with an ACSE grant that is in place to provide CS education PD to K-8 educators from Charlottesville City Schools. In many ways, the mission of the ACSE grant overlaps with the mission of the CS Institute, so as much as possible we will align the experiences.
What is the CS Institute? The annual CS Institute is a collaboration between the SPARK! CS Program at St. Anne's-Belfield School, UVA School of Education and Dept. of Computer Science. This year Charlottesville City Schools and Computers4Kids have also joined as collaborators. The purpose of the CS Institute is to help K-12 educators from all disciplines learn about computer science and find ways to incorporate it into their teaching. Along the way, we will:
Demystify computer science;
Build a regional computer science education community;
Increase access to CS for all students
What have previous attendees said about it?
The overall atmosphere was empowering and engaging!
I learned so much and am feeling so excited about new opportunities, thank you!
Great collaboration time!
Thank you for the students helpers who came to CSI and inspired and impressed us with all they are doing in CS!
Who should join? The CS Institute is open to anyone who wants to learn more about computer science and how to bring it into their K-12 spaces of teaching and learning - whether formal or informal. Now that it’s online and FREE, we look forward to this experience being an option for educators beyond our region.
What can you expect? Each week you will explore a different theme by watching video tutorials and doing hands-on activities at your own pace. There will be opportunities for community connection to meet with veteran CS educators, get peer support and share the learning experience. You will leave the CS Institute with CS-infused lessons customized to use in your classroom! You can also earn PD credit from UVA.
At last year's CS Institute, students were front and center sharing about the impact that having access to CS-infused projects and classes has made on them and being mentors. This year, student volunteers are now leading the efforts of our Summer SPARK experience and sharing their work will also be an important part of the CS Institute.
We can't wait to share the CS Institute with you! Learn more and register at summerspark.stab.org/educators.html.
