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CITY

Halifax

DATE

November 17th, 2018

VENUE

Dalhousie University, Collaborative Health Education Building, Room 150,
5793 University Avenue, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2

Instructors

Don Burks

Head Instructor at Lighthouse Labs

Don brings over 18 years of experience in software development and passion for mentorship and education. His notable experience is in teaching code and computational thinking to a broad range of audiences from coding newbies to professional software developers.

Juliet Waters

Senior Education Director

Juliet brings twenty years of journalism and communications experience to her passion for promoting and increasing digital literacy across generations. She has written about her own experience with learning to code for The New York Times and has created tutorials and lesson plans for Kids CBC, KCJ’s Hour of Code and NSERC’s Science Odyssey events.

Bernat Ferragut

Instructor

Bernat has an MSc from the University of Newscastle and has worked for over 12 years in the VFX and Web industry fields, for companies such as National Geographic, Amazing Planet, Smithsonian Institute, IMAX3D. His main focuses are in good design, internet communication, computational thinking, and of course, teaching.

Erika Kehler

Instructor

Erika connects her experience in programming and design with her sense of community and passion for building digital skills. As an instructor, Erika develops and delivers coding courses in schools and community centres, exploring topics in digital storytelling, game design, programming, and robotics, as well as instructing at teacher training workshops for Pro-D days and conferences.

Schedule

9:00am - 10:00am

Welcome and Unplugged Activity

9:00am - 10:00am

It’s the time to make new friends, enjoy breakfast and complete our ping pong rescue challenge.

10:00am - 10:30am

Introduction to Computational Thinking

10:00am - 10:30am

In this session, we will discuss the definition of computational thinking and how it exists in everyday life.

10:30am - 10:45pm

Coffee Break

10:30am - 10:45pm

Time to fuel up on both teachers’ and coders’ favourite drink

10:45am - 12:30pm

Fundamental Coding Concepts with Scratch

10:45am - 12:30pm

In this session, we will explore fundamental coding concepts using the popular visual programming platform, Scratch.

12:30pm - 1:30pm

Lunch

12:30pm - 1:30pm

Time to take a break and feast. Thanks to the fantastic CanCode program, hot lunch is on us!

1:30pm - 2:30pm

Micro:Bit Workshop

1:30pm - 2:30pm

micro:bit is a tiny programmable computer, designed to make learning and teaching easy and fun! We will explore this tool with a hands-on project.

2:30pm - 2:45pm

Coffee Break

2:30pm - 2:45pm

Avoid the afternoon lull by fueling up with some java (the liquid, not the programming language!)

2:45pm - 3:30pm

Introduction to Text-Based Coding

2:45pm - 3:30pm

In these sessions we will introduce text-based coding using the popular language Javascript. We will apply the learnings to the interactive storytelling tool Twine.

3:30pm - 3:45pm

Reflections & Closing

3:30pm - 3:45pm

The last part of the day will be for sharing. You will share your major takeaways, and we will share our favourite resources.

3:45pm - 4:45pm

Optional Advanced Topics

3:45pm - 4:45pm

This is where you get to play with some more advanced tools and see some practical implementations of the visual and text-based programming learned earlier in the day.

The Format

These workshops will combine unplugged activities that develop computational thinking and fun hands-on coding activities that will introduce teachers to rudimentary concepts in programming. Very accessible to beginners, they will also provide plenty of opportunity to go farther for more advanced participants. Each session will include lesson plans, and a curated list of proven turnkey resources. Participants will also leave with classroom materials, including a free classroom set of micro:bits and an intergenerational introduction to programming called Vibot the Robot.