Computer Science Teaching Fellows Starting Up in Charleston, SC

Posted by Cameron Fadjo, Program Lead, Computer Science Teaching Fellows

Google recently started up an exciting new program to ignite interest in computer science (CS) for K12 kids. Located in our South Carolina data center, the Computer Science Teaching Fellows is a two-year post graduate fellowship for new STEM teachers and CS graduates. The goal is to bring computer science and computational thinking to all children, especially underrepresented minorities and girls, and close the gap between the ever-increasing demand in CS and the inadequate supply. We hope to learn what really works and scale those best practices regionally and then nationally.

The supply of CS majors in the pipeline has been a concern for many years. In 2007, the Computer Science education community was alarmed by the lack of CS majors and enrollments in US colleges and universities.

Source: 2009-2010 CRA Taulbee Survey (http://www.cra.org/resources/)

This prompted the development of several programs and activities to start raising awareness about the demand and opportunities for computer scientists, and to spark the interest of K12 students in CS. For example, the NSF funded curriculum and professional development around the new CS Principles Advanced Placement course. The CSTA published standards for K12 CS and a report on the limited extent to which schools, districts and states provide CS instruction to their students. CS advocacy groups, Computing in the Core and Code.org have played an instrumental role in adding provisions to the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary School Act to support CS education. More generally, we have seen innovations in online learning with MOOCs, machine learning to provide personalized learning experiences, and platforms like Khan Academy that allow flipped classrooms.

All of these activities represent a convergence in the CS education space, where existing programs are ready for scale, and technological advancements can support that scale in innovative ways. Our Teaching Fellows will be testing after school programs, classroom curriculum and online CS programs to determine what works and why. They’ll start in the local Charleston area and then spread the best programs and curriculum to South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina (where we also have large data centers). They are currently preparing programs for the fall semester.

We are very excited about the convergence we are seeing in CS education and the potential to bring many more kids into a field that offers not only great career opportunities but also a shot at really making a difference in the world. We’ll keep you posted on the progress of our Teaching Fellows.

btw, this is another blogcation

Summer is here.  Carpe diem and all that.

A couple more days...

An American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

I was weeding the front garden when an orange butterfly, totally ignoring me, settled on the leaf of a nearby Pearly Everlasting.  She dipped her abdomen underneath the leaf, then flew away.  I knew she had oviposited, but I had to get a magnifying glass to identify the beautifully camouflaged egg...

... located in a paramedian position on the underside of the leaf.  In due course a tiny first instar emerged.  Even in their earliest stages, these caterpillars exhibit formidable body spikes -

- although this one seemed to be saying "OH HAI" as I used a fine-tiipped paint brush to transfer him/her to a fresh leaf.  In addition to the spikes, the little caterpillar constructed little "nests" of leaf debris (photos in my 2010 post on the life cycle of this butterfly).

Here it is in full adult regalia:

Several days after that photo, the caterpillar suspended itself from a branch of the Pearly Everlasting and transformed itself into a chrysalis:

A second one is nearby, and some of the "nest" debris is visible above.  When the butterfly eclosed, it hung for a while to pump fluid into the wing veins and let them harden to flight-capable rigidity.  During that time they are helpless, relatively docile and willing to pose for photos. 

I love the top image showing the diagnostic double eyespots on the undersurface of the hindwing (a close relative, the Painted Lady has four spots there), and the delicate coloration and venation pattern.  From the topside the colors are move vivid.

More information on this butterfly is available at Mike Reese's Wisconsin Butterflies website.  Those with more than a passing interest may want to peruse the University of Iowa's Red Admiral and Painted Lady Research Site.

The majestic millennia-old " Mark Twain" giant redwood tree

Cut down in 1892.

Embedded photo slightly cropped from the original at National Geographic Found.

Rubik's cube solved in less time than it takes you to read this post

YouTube link.

At the 2013 Rubik's Cube World Championship, Australian Feliks Zemdegs' fastest solve was a ridiculous 7.36 seconds.  Are you done reading this?  He's solved the cube.

"To protect and to serve"

An Associated Press article yesterday described the increasing militarization of state and local law enforcement personnel.

An Associated Press investigation of the Defense Department program, originally aimed at helping local law enforcement fight terrorism and drug trafficking, found that a disproportionate share of the $4.2 billion worth of property distributed since 1990 has been obtained by police departments and sheriff's offices in rural areas with few officers and little crime...

Known for its speed trap and annual peach festival, Morven [Georgia] also has been one of the most prolific users of the Defense Department program, getting more than $4 million worth of goods over the past decade...  [Morven Police Chief Lynwood] Yates conceded there isn't much crime and acknowledged that his officers spend most of their time on traffic enforcement.  "This is probably one of the last quiet small Southern towns left in this area," he said. "Even my worst drug dealer here, if I was broke down on the side of the road, they would stop and help."...

He says he formed a SWAT team, arming it with surplus military rifles, a Humvee and an armored personnel carrier, before the local sheriff's office had such a unit...

Yates said he could "take my guys and the training they have, the equipment we have, and we could shut this town down" and "completely control everything."

How comforting.

Fleet Street urine deflectors

From an interesting post at The Cat's Meat Shop:

The average (male) Londoner of the early 1800s, out and about, was quite happy to relieve himself in the nearest alley. Urinals were becoming more common - usually outside pubs - but typically one found a quiet corner and had a pee.

Those who lived in said alleys, or who owned commercial property adjoining, were not entirely forgiving of this practice, as this quote from 1809 suggests:  

in London a man may sometimes walk a mile before he can meet with a suitable corner; for so unaccomodating are the owners of doorways, passages and angles, that they seem to have exhausted invention in the ridiculous barricadoes and shelves, grooves, and one fixed above another, to conduct the stream into the shows of the luckless wight who shall dare to profane the intrenchments.    

Note the photograph was taken this year, so the deflectors are still in place.  Additional photos and discussion at the link (I always leave more at my sources to encourage you to visit them).

Via A London Salmagundi.