This Tuesday (November 28), Governor Kate Brown visited Parkrose Middle School to observe a class of 6th graders learning to code through the Google CS First Program.  Google is currently touring the states to help promote next week’s CS Education Week and worked with Shawn Patrick Higgins, 1st year Computer Science and Technology Teacher at Parkrose Middle School, to put on this one-day workshop for his 6th grade class.  Governor Brown was invited to showcase and help promote initiatives to increase CS educational opportunities for Oregon’s K-12 students and both KATU and KOIN were there to cover this event.

Prior to teaching at Parkrose MS, Shawn taught middle school computer science at The SEI Academy and has both attended and taught OregonCSTA  SuperQuest workshops.

CS First provides curriculum and platform for educators to introduce students in the age range of  9-14 to computer science and programming.  It is based on Scratch, the blocks-based coding platform from MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten Group.

Here are a few photos taken at Tuesday’s event: