Tag Archive for: course-nocourse

The Social Science Research and Instructional Council’s annual Social Science Student Symposium (S4) will take place on Thursday, April 27, 2017 at Fresno State.

The Council invites all undergraduates and graduate students, from all CSU campuses and California community colleges, in all areas of the social sciences, to present their research to their peers.

Thanks to the continuing generosity of Dr. Gene Geisler, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at San Francisco State and a key founding member of the SSRIC, the 2017 Symposium will include three $5,000 best paper awards. In addition to these awards, there will be a small amount to defray travel costs for participants. Eligibility for awards is limited to CSU undergraduates and Master’s level graduate students, and students in the first two full years of a CSU doctoral program.

Last year a CI student won the best paper award at this conference. 

Registration deadline is Wednesday, March 30, 2017.

For more information, please visit: http://ssric.org/participate/src . More information including the link to register will be available on the website soon.

If there are any questions, please contact Tim Kubal (tkubal@csufresno.edu) or Ed Nelson (ednelson@csufresno.edu).

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I’ve only recently rediscovered the magic and excitement of coding. My earliest programming experience involved writing Fortran computer programs using punch cards as part of my junior year pre-calculus course. I still remember feeling embarrassed when my teacher, Mr. Flickinger, handed me a giant stack of paper output resulting from my Fortran program having an error that caused it to never end. I feel envious of the many opportunities that kids have these days in being able to learn computer programming, now called “coding”. It seems like there is a new technology coming out every week that uses coding and/or electronics. I am currently spending my “play-time” learning the Python language and how to code programs for Arduino microcontrollers, Leap Motion controllers, and Raspberry Pi computers. The inventor inside of me has been “turned-on” to coding. Kids can learn how to code as early as in kindergarten. In 2015, Anne Jenks, Principal of McKinna Elementary School in Oxnard, saw an opportunity for her students in the National Hour of Code event held in December each year. She encouraged her teachers to implement the Hour of Code in their classes. Kindergarten teacher Letty Batista started engaging her English as a Second Language (ESL) students that year in writing code using the on-line website Kodable. After implementing coding in her classes that year, Letty commented, “Coding helps develop ESL students’ verbal skills and has improved students’ confidence.” She noted that the coding experience also caused her ESL kids to become more engaged in communicating in English. Such early exposures to coding are powerful since they engage kids in seeing how the code that they have created can do something useful, for example cause a robot to move in a certain way or allow a math problem to be solved. The Ventura County STEM network recognizes an opportunity for such early Computer Science education experiences to build on one another through “learning progressions” as a child progresses through elementary school through to high school and college. VC STEM is actively encouraging a dialog regarding Computer Science learning progressions and the recently released K–12 Computer Science Framework. If you are interested in learning more about this effort, consider joining us for a convening of the VC STEM Action Groups from 8 AM – 12 PM on Wednesday, May 31. For more information, contact info@vcstem.org. A recent study by Google pointed to vast disparities in equity and access to computer science education. Black students are significantly less likely to have classes dedicated to Computer Science at the schools they attend and both Black and Hispanic students are less likely to use a computer at home. Female students are less likely than male students to be aware of Computer Science learning opportunities and to indicate that they are very interested in learning Computer Science. Now it’s your turn to make a difference. December 5 – 12 is Computer Science Education Week.  If you are a teacher, sign up your class for the Hour of Code and use the resources available at Scratch, Kodable, or Code.org to create a one-hour coding experience for your kids. If you are a parent, set-aside a one-hour block of time to engage your kids in coding.