💗 Feel the CS Love! 💗
 
We hope you're feeling the CS love this month! Our February meeting will spotlight 3 of our favorite resources by grade bands: 😻 Scratch for Elementary teachers | 📟 Micro:bit for MS teachers | 📣 NCWIT for HS teachers. We hope you'll register to join us on February 9th @ 7p!
 
Here's a quick highlight of what's in our February Newsletter:
  • Get FREE CS Teaching Resources!
  • Share your CS Story at ITEC this Spring!
  • CSTA Iowa Spring Meetings Detail - Our next meeting is February 9th!
  • CSTA's Equity in Action Summit March 6th
  • Teaching Resources: Elementary: AI from EdSquare | Data Science from YouCubed
  • Member Spotlight: Marisa Dahl

February Updates & Announcements

You can get FREE CS Teaching Resources!
You can get FREE CS teaching resources by applying for one of the 2021-22 STEM Scale-up Program. The Governor's STEM Advisory Council has announced the12 STEM programs included in their 2021-22 Scale-up program which includes 4 programs that address Pre-K-12 computer science. 
Read more...
Share your CS Story at ITEC in April!
We KNOW you're doing amazing things with Computer Science in your classroom! Why not collaborate and share with educators at ITEC's 2021 Spring Conference will be April 10 - 16th this year?! 
Read more...
Update CSTA Profile Picture & Professional Role
CSTA will be pushing out a new resource to all members to help us connect, collaborate and grow as CS teachers and educators, and we need your help! To cultivate this resource, we require members to update data in their member profile.
Read more...
Exciting Updates to CS First! Action Required
Google's CS First can now be synced with Google Classroom and students can use their G Suite for Education accounts to sign in. This change requires district Google Admin to turn on the service in the Admin Console by February 16th for continued access and teachers to collect parental consent to use CS First.
Read more...
CSTA CS Teaching Excellence Award

The CS Teaching Excellence Awards are designed to recognize outstanding teaching by K–12 computer science teachers. Winners excel in inspiring students to explore the computer science field, engaging students in learning rigorous standards-aligned computer science content, and broadening the participation of underrepresented students in computing. CSTA will select at least three K-5 CS teachers and three 6-8 teachers of the ten national winners. These awards were made possible by a grant from Infosys Foundation USA. Applications are due February 8, 2021.

Read more...
Amazon Future Engineer Teacher of the Year Awards
The Amazon Future Engineer Teacher of the Year Awards honor and recognize 10 all-star teachers working diligently to help students in underserved and underrepresented communities pursue futures in computer science and robotics. Applications are due March 19, 2021.
Read more...
Opportunity to Learn & Grow CS Equity Together - Please Complete Our Interest Survey 
The Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance in collaboration with the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) is calling for applications for a new grant program to support projects that focus on equity in K-12 computer science education. CSTA Iowa needs your input so we can submit an application that meets the needs and interests of our members.
Read more...

February Learning & Connection Opportunities

35th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Virtual Conference
Feb 06, 2021 - Feb 07, 2021
 
CSTA Iowa February Virtual Member Meeting & Social Hour
Feb 09, 2021
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
 
Texas CSTA Chapters Virtual Conference 2021
Virtual Conference
Feb 13, 2021
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
 
Creating a Spark for Artificial Intelligence in Iowa
Virtual Webinar
Feb 22, 2021
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
 
Equity in Action Summit
Virtual Summit
Mar 06, 2021
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
 
CSTA Iowa March Virtual Member Meeting & Social Hour
Mar 09, 2021
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
 
View entire list

February Teaching Resources & Strategies

Elementary Resource - EdSquare's AI & Machine Learning site
Looking for ways to engage elementary students in age appropriate Artificial Intelligence learning? Check out EdSquare's free, unplugged lessons about AI and machine learning available as Google Slides and printables!
Secondary Resource - YouCubed Data Science site
Looking for ways to teach Data Science and address the Data & Analysis CS standards? YouCubed has a plethora of resources including a HS data course curriculum, lessons for 6-10 grade, videos, and resources to help kids and colleagues understand why it's important content to learn!

February Member Spotlight

CSTA Iowa Spotlight on Marisa Dahl
This month CSTA Iowa shines a spotlight on Marisa Dahl. Marisa  is an Instructional Technology Consultant at Heartland AEA and member of the Iowa Computer Science Leadership Team.
Step up to the Spotlight!
Please click the button below so we can highlight the great CS work you're doing too!

Welcome to #CSforIA!

A warm welcome to our new members this month! 
  • Elizabeth Enderson -Estherville-Lincoln Central Community School District
  • Julie Thede - Marshalltown Community School District
  • Lindsay Salinas - Postville Community School District
CSTA Iowa supports and connects educators across Iowa with teaching Computer Science.
Please contact any member of the CSTA Iowa Leadership team with questions, concerns, and ideas!
President
Digital Learning Consultant 
Grant Wood AEA
Iowa City
Vice President
Web & Mobile Instructor
Waterloo Career Center/Hawkeye CC
Urbana
Secretary
7-12 Science & CS Teacher
North Mahaska Jr/Sr High
Treasurer
Calculus, PreCalculus, CSP, CSA, Statistics Teacher
MOC-Floyd Valley High School
Past President
Environmental Science, AP CS, AP Research
Central Academy
Des Moines
Community Partner
Director K-12 Education
NewBoCo
Cedar Rapids
Advocacy Agent
Computer Science Consultant
Iowa Department of Education
CSTA Iowa
iowa@csteachers.org

About Us

CSTA Iowa supports and connects educators across Iowa with teaching Computer Science in many forms.

Whether you teach CSP to high school students or integrate coding into elementary literacy, we're here to share resources, support your practice, and connect you with CS educators across our great state!
 
Visit our website: iowa.csteachers.org

Questions? Suggestions?

CSTA Iowa is here to support you! Please share questions and suggestions with any leadership team member or at iowa@csteachers.org
 
 

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