June 7th Workshops

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: Adams 12 Educational Support Center

2019 Scalable Game Design One Day Summer Institute

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: This one day turbo-charged workshop will take you from absolute beginner to intermediate level. No experience or prior knowledge required. We will show you how to use AgentCubes online with your students (recommended for grades 5-9) and the pedagogy behind it. We will create a Pacman game and then move on to a predator-prey simulation. We will show how AgentCubes online is aligned with the standards and our new classroom management tool.

This workshop is FREE and additionally, you will receive a free one year subscription (teacher account and student access) for your classroom.

Please bring a laptop or Chromebook with a browser (not IE) that’s capable of running webgl.

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Coding, Robotics and 21st Century STEM skills through Virtual Robotics Competitions

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: This workshop will introduce participants to the concepts of teaching Computer Science and Computational Thinking using gamification, online virtual robotics. Participants will learn how to address the goal of permeating STEM education into schools and meet state Computer Science requirements while the students are enjoying themselves. Using virtual robotics puts a robot in every student’s hands and the cloud-based learning enables in school and out of school engagement. In parallel, the Cyber Robotics Coding Competition ignites the competitive nature of students to engage them in robotics and coding.

The curriculum introduced are CSTA and NGSS aligned.

Participants will get free access to the CoderZ platform for the session and for 30 days after the session to continue working with the application.

Requirements:
 A laptop or Chromebook computer
 Latest Chrome web browser
 At least 4GB of RAM (8GB recommended)

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Teaching CS and Cyber with the Micro:Bit (Elementary)

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: The micro:bit is an excellent tool for introducing elementary students to the world of coding. During this session, teachers will learn about the projects and activities NICERC provides to teachers around the micro:bit that will get students coding! The takeaway from this session will be ways to use NICERC resources as a stand alone course, or as a tool that can be integrated in to a STEM or Liberal Arts Classroom.  

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Integrating the Micro:Bit into the Middle School Classroom (Middle School)

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: The micro:bit is an excellent tool for introducing middle school students to the world of coding. During this session, teachers will learn about the projects and activities NICERC provides to teachers around the micro:bit that will get students coding! The takeaway from this session will be ways to use NICERC resources as a stand alone course, or as a tool that can be integrated in to a STEM or Liberal Arts Classroom.

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Teaching Cyber in the High School Classroom (High School Teachers)

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: The cyber:bot is the newest robotics platform developed by NICERC that harnesses the power of the micro:bit and integrates it with a number of external sensors and servos. During this session, attendees will learn ways to integrate cyber into the classroom through this new platform as well as best practices for teaching cyber through a combination of unplugged activities and NICERC resources .

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Learn to Teach Computer Science with CodeMonkey

Morning: 8- 12, 4 hour session.

Description: Ideal for Upper Elementary and Middle School.

BYOD: During this hands-on workshop which is open for anyone with any experience level. During this hands on session we will work through these CS principles with both plugged in and unplugged activities that you can take back and use in your classroom right away. Our goal at CodeMonkey is to put teachers in the driver seat. We want to empower you to have the confidence to teach Coding confidently.

During this session we will work through these Coding Concepts.

  • Statements, Arguments, Loops,
  • Objects, Variables, Array
  • Indexing & For Loops

Skills your students will gain from using CodeMonkey.

  • Universal Coding concepts such as using variables, loops, arrays, indexes, conditions, functions writing event handlers and more.
  • Real text-based coding languages – CoffeeScript and Python
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Analytical thinking
  • Teamwork
  • Creativity
  • Generalization and abstraction of problems
  • Finding the similarities and differences between problems
  • Recognizing patterns
  • Object-oriented thinking
  • Independent working skills

What will I get by attending: Each participant will get a trial that will include Part 1 of Coding Adventure which will include 75 challenges and skill mode challenges in addition to our challenge builder. This will be good for 3 months.

Requirements: The only thing you need is a relatively up-to-date version of either Firefox, Chrome, Explorer or Safari, and an internet connection. If you are using CodeMonkey on a tablet: For best performance – use a relatively new tablet (from the last two years) connected to the internet and access our website through the Chrome/Safari app.

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Let’s Get Gamified With CodeMonkey

Afternoon: 12 – 4 pm, 4 hour session

Description: Ideal for Upper Elementary and Middle School.

BYOD: During this hands on workshop participants will work through the three Game Design Principles. After working through several gaming concepts. Participants will walk out with a game that you have built and can start using in your classroom right away.

Concepts we will cover:

  • Create and write event handlers
    • @onkey, @detroy, @collide
  • Creating parameters
  • If statements
  • Adding sounds and loops
  • Create an animation using a sprite sheet
  • “addAnimation”, “startAnimation”
  • Create unique versions of the classic game ‘Frogger’
  • Learn to control touch interface with the @onswipe event handler
  • Coding Components “onKey”, “step”, “if”, “setRotation”, “loop
  • Determine- position, speed, and direction

Skill Sets Students will acquire:

  • Universal Coding concepts such as using variables, loops, arrays, indexes, conditions, functions writing event handlers and more.
  • Real text-based coding languages – CoffeeScript and Python
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Analytical thinking
  • Teamwork
  • Creativity
  • Generalization and abstraction of problems
  • Finding the similarities and differences between problems
  • Recognizing patterns
  • Object-oriented thinking
  • Independent working skills

Device Agnostic: The only thing you need is a relatively up-to-date version of either Firefox, Chrome, Explorer or Safari, and an internet connection. If you are using CodeMonkey on a tablet: For best performance – use a relatively new tablet (from the last two years) connected to the internet and access our website through the Chrome/Safari app.

What will I get by attending: Each participant will get a trial that will include our three Game Builder courses: Platformer, Frogger and Draw Your Own Sprite plus Create Games. This will be good for 3 months.

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Code.org Computer Science Fundamentals (CSF)

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: This workshop provides an introduction to computer science, pedagogy, overview of the online code.org curriculum, teacher dashboard, and strategies for teaching “unplugged” classroom activities. The workshop will prepare you to teach the Code Studio courses for grades K-5.

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Code.org Computer Science Fundamentals Deep Dive

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: This workshop is designed for elementary educators who have started teaching CS Fundamentals but want to more deeply understand Code.org’s approach to teaching CS and need strategies to fully implement the curriculum.

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Elementary Robotics Workshop

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: Robotics are a new and exciting way to teach computer science in the classroom. They teach students computational thinking as well as creativity, problem solving, and collaboration. This workshop provides hands-on experience with Robots along with practical classroom applications.

  • Dash
  • Learn to Code Box Set & Curriculum Guide
  • Sphero SPRK+
  • Ozobots Evo

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.

Bring Coding and Robotics to Life in your Middle School and High School Classroom

Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Description: This workshop is designed for participants who are looking to bring coding, robotics, computer science and project-based learning to the classroom. During this hands-on session, attendees will learn about coding and robotics using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 to teach students how to solve real-world problems. Attendees will walk away with programming knowledge including basic sensor and motor control, linear programming statements, and loops, in addition to concrete activities for how to apply coding applications in the classroom using robotics.

Please bring your device with MINDSTORMS software installed.

Registration: You must register for this event separate from the conference. Please click here to register.