Event: Computer Science Education Week
Posted on November 27th, 2011 by Jaimie Schock
CSEdWeek 2011 celebrates the impact of computing and the need for computer science education. The week incorporates events and resources for students, teachers, parents, administrators, college and university reps, and industry. When: December 4-11, 2011.
Filed under: For Teachers, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, K-12 Outreach Programs | Comments Off on Event: Computer Science Education Week
Tags: Computer Engineering, Computer Programming, Computer Science, Events, Family events, Internet Resources, Teacher Resources, Teacher Training, Teaching Aids, Web Resources
Twelve students have won the National STEM Video Game Challenge, according to Education Week. They include a team of students who developed a game called, “You Make Me Sick!” to teach about bacteria and viruses. Inspired by the Educate to Innovate Campaign, President Obama’s initiative to promote a renewed focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, the contest aims to motivate interest in STEM learning among America’s youth by tapping into students’ natural passions for playing and making video games.
The 2011 ThinkQuest International Competition challenges students to apply their critical thinking, communication, and technology skills to a real-world problem. Teams research, develop, and test their solution before presenting it to a global audience. Students and their coaches put their ideas and skills to the test in one of three events.
Computer simulations and games offer “great potential” to assist inquiry-based science learning, according to a report by the National Research Council. They may help boost motivation, understanding and skills, and encourage students to identify with science. 
With their problem-solving techniques and technologies engineers are well-positioned to help render U.S. healthcare more efficient, effective, and affordable. And as new and different models are conceived, engineers can help design and support them, analyzing if and how well they are working.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) wants to tap into the collective brain power of super-smart high school geeks. The Pentagon agency is spending $10 million on a project that would have teen braniacs using Web 2.0 social-networking skills to speed up and improve defense manufacturing technologies.
A Houston area school district plans to open an Academy of Game Design this fall at Willowridge High School. Students will learn the basics of game design, including 2D and 3D animation, graphics, lighting, and sound mixing. Computer game developer Rodney Gibbs applauds the idea. His work invovles a great deal of calculus, physics, engineering, computer science,” he says. But for young people, “video games are like the cheese on broccoli.”
Getting middle school students to spend a precious Saturday morning back in school—studying STEM topics, no less—may sound like an exercise in frustration. But, a program developed by the Salisbury, Maryland school district is having great success doing exactly that.
