Collab Lab 21: Building Computer Science Talent

How can we engage a broad range of students to develop computer science talent?

Code the Way is a new, local non-profit that has grown out of SafeNet’s summer internship program. That program leads teams of high school students to develop custom applications for other local non-profits. Over the past 2 years, they’ve developed an effective way to engage students in meaningful, high quality work and now look to broaden the pool of talent that is able to participate. You’ll get an overview of the Code the Way program and help us understand where teachers/schools see the most value, the barriers to reaching more students, and opportunities for collaboration and alignment with other efforts.

Come share ideas with your colleagues at public, private, and charter schools from across greater Milwaukee, as well as some folks outside of K12 who offer an interesting perspective on the topic.

Agenda

5:30 – 6:00 Grab something to eat and drink, say hello

6:00 – 6:30 Introductions/Code the Way program overview

6:30 – 8:30 Let’s explore how to get more students engaged in CS

Food and beverage will be provided. There is no charge for participation but space is limited!

Featured Participants

Among others, you’ll have a chance to talk with:

Ryan Bennett — Senior Consultant,  SafeNet Consulting

Ryan is a software engineer with a decade of experience at various corporations including running a Portland-based start-up from his bedroom for 2 years. Ryan is the Program director of Code the Way. As a self taught developer who was fortunate enough to be mentored early on, he interested in bringing this learning opportunity to as many students as possible.

Dennis Brylow — Associate Professor, Computer Science, Marquette University

Dennis’ work centers on building tools to help those who design, build, or teach complex systems, with particular focus on Embedded, Real-time, and Interrupt-Driven Systems, Programming Languages and Software Engineering. He has been the principal investigator on just over $3 million of extramural grant funding from the National Science Foundation, Cisco, Google, Intel and others. His ongoing projects include:

• Embedded XINU, a culmination of both his research and teaching interests;
• NSF-funded REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) site, “Computation Across the Disciplines”; and
• The PUMP-CS Project, which is working to increase the number of qualified high school computer science teachers in the upper Midwest and metropolitan Milwaukee in particular.

Karen Green — Computer Science Coach, Milwaukee Public Schools

Karen is a retired MPS science teacher who currently serves as the Computer Science Coach for the district. Prior to teaching, Karen worked as a computer programmer. She is part of the MPS district-wide effort to enhance computer science education for students in all grades. She also supports classroom teachers as they implement computer science instruction. In addition, Karen serves as a liaison for the PUMP-CS grant, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and administered by Dennis Brylow.

Ryan Osterberg — Computer Science Teacher, Brookfield Central High School

Ryan has been teaching computer science for 22 years. Throughout his career he has worked to provide his students with the best computer science learning opportunities. He’s recently begun to bring in current work place practices into my classes in an effort to create real-world learning experiences. Working as part of the Code the Way team, he has brought real-world computer science learning and application to over 50 students.

Mark Zacher — Milwaukee Regional Manager, TEALS

TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools) is a Microsoft Philanthropy that supports high schools in offering computer science classes. TEALS pairs teachers that are not yet trained and/or confident enough to teach computer science and match them with volunteers from the industry that can co-teach the class with them. There are three models of volunteer support and four different curricula TEALS offer depending on the needs of the particular teacher or district. School recruitment for the next school year happens in the Fall and volunteer recruitment happens in the Spring. The goal: computer science in every high school.