2014 CSTA Annual Conference

CSTA 2014

Participant Registration Page


Pheasant Run Resort

St. Charles, Illinois

July 14-15, 2014

For questions regarding registration,

please contact Tiffany Nash at

T.Nash@CSTA-HQ.org or call 212-626-0507

Our Annual Conference provides professional development opportunities for K-12 computer science and information technology teachers who need practical, relevant information to help them prepare their students for the future.

Take advantage of this opportunity for relevant professional development. Explore issues and trends relating directly to your classroom, network with top professionals from across the country, interact with other teachers to gain new perspectives on shared challenges.

Some of this year's sessions include:

  • AP Computer Science

  • Computational Thinking

  • Increasing Enrollment in CS

  • Programming

  • Robotics


  • The online conference registration FEE is $75 + $60 per workshop (or $100 when you sign up for both a morning and an afternoon workshop). The cutoff date for registration is June 26, 2014. All presenters and attendees must register online.



    CONFERENCE FEES ARE NOT PRORATED OR REFUNDABLE.



    Please note that we will not be accepting onsite registration for workshops nor will we be able to allow switching of workshops due to the advanced preparation and information needed to participate in a workshop.

To revise a previous registration, please type your personal passcode here, and press the ENTER button.    

If you lost the personal passcode for a previous registration, please click HERE.


Accommodations and Travel

Hotel or other accommodations must be reserved separately; the 2014 CSTA Annual Conference is not involved in any details of housing for attendees.

The Conference has, however, arranged for block reservations at reduced rates at the following location.

Pheasant Run Resort
4051 East Main Street
St. Charles, IL 60174

Single $129 (USD, does not include tax)*
*Rates are valid until June 13, 2014

Use the registration portal below for reservations.
https://reservations.ihotelier.com/crs/g_reservation.cfm?groupID=1103106&hotelID=2932

Details on housing and travel can be found here at the: Main Conference Website.

Type of registration

I will be a(an):(*)  
Do you need/would you like a certificate of attendance for the conference as a whole?
Conference certificate  
Do you need/would you like a certificate of attendance for the conference workshop(s)?
Workshop certificate  

Contact information

Title: 
First Name: (*)
Middle Initial: 
Last Name: (*)
Email:  (*)
Telephone (including country code): (*)
Cell Phone (including country code): 
Institution: (*)
Department: 
Street: (*)
City/Town: (*)
State/Province: (*)
Zip/Postal code: (*)
Country:  

Workshop Preference (if any)

NOTE: These are three-hour hands-on workshops. All attendees are required to bring their own laptops. Each workshop is an additional $60. When purchasing both a morning and an afternoon workshop at the same time, you will receive a discounted rate. To be registered for a workshop you must be registered for the conference and also check the appropriate payment box on the payment page. For full workshop descriptions, please refer to the conference agenda. Pre-registration is required to participate in a workshop. No switching will be allowed.

Morning Workshops

A Programming Approach to the CS Principles "Data" Task
Presenter(s): Daniel D. Garcia and Nathaniel Titterton
Description: One of the performance tasks for the proposed APCS: Principles course is: “Investigate–Bits to Information to Knowledge”, aka “Data”. Students author 3–5 questions whose answers can be found within a publicly available data set of at least 1000 elements. They then must apply computational tools and methods to research the answers and create graphics that communicate the results. Presenters will share UC Berkeley’s Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) curricular materials that support students to succeed in this performance task.
Computational Thinking: from Game Design to STEM in One Week
Presenter(s): Alexander Repenning and David Webb
Description: The Scalable Game Design (SGD) strategy is based on a path that introduces students to CT through game design and then advances to the creation of STEM simulations. Participants will learn about our approach, the latest research results and how to scaffold game design into a classroom with unique tools for “pre-bugging” and automatic evaluation. Activities include designing and creating 2D and 3D arcade games in AgentSheets and AgentCubes programming environments. Materials will include a complete introductory curriculum. No prior programming experience required.
Developing CS Materials for the Guided Inquiry Classroom
Presenter(s): Clif Kussmaul, Tammy Pirmann, and Helen H. Hu
Description: Learn how to develop and evaluate classroom activities using process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL). Explore the structure of POGIL activities, common types of questions and their sequencing, and characteristics of effective models. Teams of learners work on scripted inquiry activities designed to help them construct their own knowledge. Effective activities require appropriate learning objectives, models for learner to explore, and sequences of questions to guide student thinking. Participants will experience POGIL activities, and analyze, outline, and implement parts of activities. ***Participants must have previously completed a 3-hour introductory workshop***
Introduction to Programming with Greenfoot
Presenter(s): Neil Brown and Davin McCall
Description: This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to Greenfoot, and will support participants in creating their first Greenfoot game. Participants will get experience with Greenfoot, as well as explanations of how its design is intended to benefit teaching and learning. No previous programming experience or exposure to Greenfoot is assumed/required. Participants should bring a laptop, with the latest version of Greenfoot installed (freely available from greenfoot.org).
Learning with TurtleArt
Presenter(s): Michael Tempel, Artemis Papert, and Brian Silverman
Description: TurtleArt is a microworld for exploring art through turtle geometry. Turtle Art also provides rich control of colors, shades, and pen widths. TurtleArt is a visual programming environment in which programs are created by snapping together blocks on the screen and the vocabulary is small so fluency can be reached quickly. Soon after "learning TurtleArt" you can start "learning with TurtleArt”. A challenge for computer science educators is to engage more students and to reach them at an earlier age. Turtle Art helps achieve that goal.
***CLOSED***Media Computation in Python
Presenter(s): Mark Guzdial and Barbara Ericson
Description: Media Computation is an approach to teaching introductory programming that has students write programs that manipulate media: pictures, sounds, text, and movie frames. Students can express their creativity while learning about variables, loops, conditionals, string manipulation, and arrays. This material is appropriate for a Computer Science Principles course.

Afternoon Workshops

Alice and Friends: Introducing Programming to Students, 5-12
Presenter(s): Donald Slater, Wanda Dann, and Steve Cooper
Description: Alice and Friends brings the characters (with built-in high-level animations) from the Garfield© comic strip to Alice 2. In this session, participants will create animations with these characters in the Alice programming environment. This engaging tool allows students to create 3D animations and simple games while learning fundamental programming concepts and developing computational thinking skills. Participants will also review curricular materials designed specifically for younger students.
ArduBlock: Simple Yet Powerful Graphical Programming for Arduino
Presenter(s): Brian Huang and Angela Sheehan
Description: Arduino is a hardware platform built around a low-cost 8-bit microcontroller that allows students, artists, and designers to easily interact with the physical environment through devices such as LEDs, motors, sensors, switches, and buttons. ArduBlock is a graphical programming environment very similar to the Scratch programming system. It integrates directly into Arduino, and is very easy to use for students as young as 8-10 years of age. Come and play with our team as we demonstrate examples of teaching physical computing and computer programming without a single missing semicolon.
Artbotics with Lego Mindstorms
Presenter(s): Adam Norton and Holly Yanco
Description: This workshop introduces participants to the Artbotics program, which combines art and robotics to teach students about CS while creating kinetic, interactive sculptures. The Lego Mindstorms NXT platform will be used to create two projects during the workshop: a spirograph-like drawing produced by programming a car to drive using a sequence of motor movements (teaching the need for looping in programming), and an interactive, kinetic sculpture that reacts to sensor input. Materials will be presented in introductory fashion, allowing easy integration from workshop to classroom. No experience required.
Introduction to Programming the HTML5 Canvas
Presenter(s): Elaine Blomeyer and James Town
Description: Using the HTML5 canvas object, participants will learn the basics of the Javascript canvas interface to program and animate objects in a web browser, the canvas coordinate system, how to draw basic geometric shapes and then use that knowledge to create simple optical illusions. Basic animation techniques will also be learned to create even more complex illusions. Activities could potentially be coordinated with math teachers in cross-curricular assignments using coordinate-Geometry. Prior knowledge of HTML and Javascript is desired, but not required. Chrome is the preferred browser to be used for debugging purposes.
Mobile Computer Science Principles
Presenter(s): Ralph Morelli, Chinma Uche, Pauline Lake and Shaileen Pokress
Description: The CS Principles (CSP) Project is an effort to develop a language-neutral, breadth-first advanced placement (AP) course in CS. MobileCSP is an effort to train high school teachers to teach a CSP course that engages students in building mobile apps with App Inventor. Participants will receive an overview including a hands-on workshop with App Inventor and sample CSP-based lesson plans, assessment materials, and other resources. MobileCSP training will be available (free) to all high school teachers in summer 2014 through an online course. For high school teachers, but middle school teachers welcome.
***CLOSED***New Labs for the Advanced Placement Computer Science A Course
Presenter(s): Barbara Ericson and Crystal Furman
Description: This workshop will provide hands-on experience with the three new labs for the Advanced Placement Computer Science A course. We will discuss the rational behind the new labs, pacing for the labs, and pedagogy. Teachers will work through some of the student exercises. We will also discuss the audit requirements.
Please select your choice of morning and afternoon workshops. The selection will be used to compute the payment page content.

Workshop Selection (Reminder: All attendees are required to bring their own laptops.)

Morning workshop -(*)  
Afternoon workshop -(*)  

Monday Evening: Computer Science on the Move! A Universal Technical Institute visit and reception (free).

“Cars will become the first robot most of us experience in our lifetime. They will be the predominant platform for the Internet of Things,” said Gartner analysis Thilo Koslowski.

Come see the “best kept secret in computer science careers!” Collect examples of final product results and applications to share with your students. Bring back exciting illustrations that will help provide answers to, “Why do we need to learn this?” Learn more about the numerous and profitable career opportunities for your students in the transportation industry.

So, join us for a little human-to-computer and human-to-human interaction at the brand new Universal Technical Institute campus in Lisle. We will showcase the latest computer applications in the transportation industry while you hear from our specialists about the new developments in computer applications.
Relax and mingle with your colleagues at our appreciation reception that includes complimentary heavy hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. Transportation is included to and from the conference site. Space is limited.

***Participants can confirm attendance on the payment page. If the tour item does not show up on the page, it means that there are no more places left.***

Lunch will be buffet-style. If you have special dietary needs, please select the applicable option below.

Gluten-free Meal Requested  
Vegetarian Meal Requested  
Dairy-free Meal Requested  

CSTA Illinois Chapter membership:


Would you like to join the llinois CSTA Chapter?  

Additional Payment information

Will you be paying for your registration yourself or will your school or district be paying for you?
Registration Payment Information(*)  
Please specify the school or district who is going to pay. 

NOTE

Please proceed to the Payment Page to complete your registration. You will receive a "registration in process" confirmation with a passcode from this website when you submit the information on this page, and you will receive a final registration confirmation email once you have completed the payment and the system has confirmed that the payment has been correctly processed.

Your registration is NOT COMPLETE until you have paid the registration fee and received the final confirmation from us.

Please allow five business days for your confirmation.


START Conference Manager (V2.61.0 - Rev. 6250)