Mission:

Computing is everywhere in our modern lives. It is driving commerce and job creation, innovation in numerous other fields of science, and changing our daily lives. The discipline of computer science underpins these technological advances. It is critical that K-12 students gain the skills and knowledge that come from studying computer science, however, in Northern Virginia, like many other areas of the country, K-12 computer science is marginalized and students have little access to courses in this area.

To address this challenge this group of individuals committed to forming a chapter for the Computer Science Teachers Association, a globally recognized organization representing K-12 educators, to build a community of expertise, advocates and support to strengthen K-12 computer science education in Northern Virginia.

Minutes - May 5, 2012


Minutes – May 5, 2012

In attendance: Ann Drobnis, Cameron Wilson, Karen Conlin, Sandra Davis, Darrell Andrews, Pearl Wang, Timothy Seaman, Roshan Thomas, Kammy Sanghera, Terese Scott, Steve Rose, Mark Snyder

It was decided that our first priority is to become an official CSTA chapter.  We read through the application and by laws and accepted all of the standard wording.  Everyone in the room agreed to be considered a founding member. 

We then discussed the activities that we want to plan for in the coming year so that we can submit the plan with our chapter application.  The following were discussed:

Activities for Year:

Train new teachers (mentor for a year)
Find ways to stimulate middle school kids by exciting them to pursue CS in high school
Computing Days event to middle schools – feeder schools
PD for selves
Sponsor “Scratch” Day
CSEd Week – Computing Fair – connecting kids to real problems / applications
Leverage Companies in the area


Parent’s Piece: Create an event to get parents asking about computing (session for the parents)

8th grade curriculum nights at the high schools


Long Range Goal – build out mentoring network perhaps into a CS4HS course

More specifically (for the application):
Develop a mentoring network for new teachers in the area that we can help.

6 meetings per year, f2f then alternate with virtual
            -at each meeting, we will spend some of the time with continuing business and part of the time with professional development activities.

Collect Data to understand the landscape – how many schools, how many courses, how many students , how many teachers, etc.  (Cameron will lead this effort)

CS EdWeek – major awareness activity (students / fair) and…
(Pearl, Kammy and Darrell will look into logistics)

Educate students / parents  about competitions (botball, FIRST, etc.)

Advocacy  - connect with state level, find a state rep champion to build out an advocacy day at state capitol (Cameron will find champion)


June Meeting (Friday, June 15 at 4:30 at GMU)
Update on CSEdWeek activity
Brainstorm PD activities
What is happening with CS Principles

Meeting second week of September – kickoff for school year- everyone bring an activity



Additional Topics – consider Adding a wiki to the website for collaboration.

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