This page provides more information about the three workshop streams happening throughout the conference. When attending the conference, you will be able to choose a workshop in each stream to attend throughout the conference that best suits your needs. If you are struggling to pick which workshop suits you, get in contact with us and we can assist you in getting the most out of CS4HS.
Remember the Christchurch event is particularly focused on people who have no background, are teaching these topics for the first time, or would like to go over the basics really carefully. Therefore there are not many workshops aimed at the advanced end, but we would appreciate you helping out at other workshops if you feel up to it. Contact Jack Morgan if you are keen.
These full day workshops focus on learning the programming content and occur on the Monday and Tuesday before the conference. These are optional paid workshops ($140 without accommodation or $200 with accommodation), see the register page for more details.
For those with absolutely no experience, programming concepts are taught gently using Scratch and Python at the same time. Intended for those with no programming experience, this session will mainly orient you around what is available, and give information on how to get up to speed in programming.
This workshop will explore Python programming via a series of small projects. At the end of the two days you will walk away with a selection of programs which use Python to demonstrate a variety of programming concepts. If you already know a variable from a function and a String from an Integer but you're not really sure what to do with it all, then this workshop is for you.
For those who are looking for using JavaScript to learn programming concepts, Michael will take teachers through building games and apps with the Code Avengers material. These lessons are also suitable for digital media, or junior programming courses. Please bring headphones to this workshop to hear game sounds (this is optional).
This workshop will cover important parts of achievement standard 2.41 (AS91368): "designing and constructing a database" with a well-organised table structure, relational database design, "using tools of the software to integrate data from a database...", and cover 3.41 (AS91633): "creating queries which combine data from multiple tables" (joins in SQL), and "creating queries which insert, update or delete to modify data" (CRUD). In addition to these we will write assessment, we will share number of database examples and we will build database solutions for them and will also share resources available to help teach databases to High School students.
For those wishing to look at electronics and simple programming, this interactive workshop will introduce the popular PICAXE microcontroller and Raspberry-Pi and explore how these could connect to the Electronics and Infrastructure standards.
These workshops occur on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday during the conference. If you struggle to find a workshop that suits you best, get in contact with Jack Morgan or Tim Bell.
For those who have never used the level 1 computer science standard before (1.44/AS91074) Caitlin will go over the purpose of this standard, investigate the topic, show some examples of how to get students engaged with the ideas in it, and cover the teacher assessment guides. Recommended for first timers.
For those who have had an introduction to Computer Science and wish to cover level 1 and 2 (1.44/AS91074 and 2.44/AS91371) at a faster pace over the three days. Tim will cover the content, provide steps on how to teach concepts, and introduce the assessment guides.
For those who are interested in level 3 (3.44/AS91636) come hear different experiences teachers have had with a variety of topics. We will also hear about report writing specifically for level 3. Do be aware that this session is different to previous years and focuses on teacher experiences, rather than teaching level 3 topics, as there is not enough time for this at CS4HS.
These workshops focus on how to teach and assess programming for NCEA standards, and occur on the Wednesday and Thursday during the conference. If you struggle to find a workshop that suits you best, get in contact with Jack Morgan or Tim Bell.
When students take on programming for the first time, a wide range of ideas and misconceptions arise. This course will look at key ideas that are important to get right, and also different approachs to teaching introductory concepts.
What are some good approaches for teaching planning with programming? What makes a good assessment? What is programming style? We will discuss these questions and more in this workshop focusing on the level 2 and 3 standards.
Cover the programming concepts of Python required for level 1 & level 2 using Code Avengers exercises. This workshop also has teachers trying lessons and practising exercises, and also covers using the Code Avengers teacher tools like class setup and marking.
In the Unconference, attendees and presenters converge on topics of mutual interest that they would like to discuss or learn more about. It's also a chance to spend more time on topics from earlier sessions if there's interest. Information about available unconference streams will become available during the conference, and listed on the schedule page.