Wednesday: Terrel Smith, 37 year veteran of the classroom and President of the Oregon Computer Science Teachers Association — T will talk about the grant funding this workshop, and additional supports for increasing the number and quality of CS education programs in Oregon, in and afterschool. Thursday: Chris Stephenson, Head of CS Education Programs at Google, […]

One of the educators in Melissa Kessler’s App Inventor class in Pendleton teaches preschool — and she came out of the class confident that she can use ScratchJr this fall, to help the kids she works with have fun, learn, and have some control. No more App specific classes this summer, but there are Game Development […]

Jill Hubbard wears many hats, and this summer at SuperQuest it’s a gamer’s cap. She’s teaching teachers, sharing her experiences from her Game Development class at Tualatin High School (sandwiched between her Engineering, programming, and robotics duties). These pictures were taken at the Wilsonville SuperQuest, where the event and instructors got great reviews. You still […]

Don Domes gives his class of teachers a small number of LEGO pieces, access to some student-appropriate internet resources, a worksheet, markers, whiteboards, lots of hands on time to practice, and very little lecturing. Some teachers have no previous experience, some have a couple of years, but all are engaged and making progress at showing […]

Jason Galbraith from Sunset High taught App Development to a darkened roomful of teachers in Wilsonville — we let them back into the light for Lunch and Learn Speakers. Right now in Redmond, Melissa Kessler’s App Inventor class is going strong (but no pictures — yet). And next week in Pendleton, Melissa will be teaching […]

On Saturday, June 25, 2016, a devoted group of industry professionals, educators, legislators, non-profit program providers, and community members gathered at the OCSTA Symposium to sound the call for greater collaboration and support for more computer science-literate students in Oregon.  To accomplish this, we desperately need more computer science instruction in formal K-12 education, but […]

The CS10K Community is offering a webinar on Tuesday, July 26 at 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET on how teachers can secure funding and support for their their CS classrooms. Guests Alabama teacher Gina McCarley, Karen Parker of Google’s CS4HS, and Kirk Smiley of DonorsChoose will join webinar host Deepa Muralidhar to provide helpful tips on how […]

To paraphrase Ruthe Farmer, the White House’s Tech Inclusion Advisor: We must include everyone, not just for the social and economic justice issues, but for the necessary diversity of thought to drive innovation. We must recognize the components of equity:   Diversity: counting who is in the room. Access: Who knows the room exists? Who has […]

Tom Thompson, Industrial and Engineering Systems Education Specialist at the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) came for lunch — and we had him give a dog and pony show: “The Current Status and Future Direction of CTE in Oregon”. His slides are here. Key points: CTE = Career and Technical Education  CTE is about education and about […]

The BEC believes in long-term partnerships between schools and businesses in a community can enhance the educational experience to help students of all ages discover their interests, grow their knowledge and develop the skills they will need to join the workforce. That is why we help give students real-world learning experiences in both classroom and […]