Several professional development workshops in computer science for high schools teachers were organized by UCA STEM Institute in collaboration with the Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science. They were held during June 9-11 and 16-18, 2015 from 12pm to 4pm on UCA campus. Dr. R.B. Lenin, Associate professor of Mathematics, was the lead instructor. Teachers from Alma, Little Rock, Mayflower, and Vilonia School Districts attended the workshop.
In this workshop, Dr. Lenin covered basic computer programming topics such as expressions, functions, simple control and looping statements using the user-friendly software known as ‘Alice’ during the first half of the workshop. In the second half, he introduced a high-level computer programming language known as ‘Python’ to understand deeper concepts of computer programming. The participants were provided with computers, and each topic was covered by the instructor through extensive hands-on-experience in computer coding. On the last day of the PD, various topics of the Praxis test were covered by going over the sample questions of Praxis study companion – Computer Science 5651.
Details about the content of this PD can be obtained by contacting Dr. R.B. Lenin (rblenin@uca.edu). Details about future offerings can be obtained by contacting Dr. Uma Garimella (ugarimel@uca.edu).
Some comments from the participants are …
“It was such a pleasure to take your class. I hope I have the opportunity to study with you again.
I never would have thought that this would be a field that I would be so interested in, but it may be just the ticket for me. Thanks so much for making it interesting and fun.
I am excited about the opportunities that this could bring, and I don’t think that I would be thinking in those terms if we didn’t have a knowledgeable, patient, and passionate instructor. Thank you so much for that. ”
“This was the best PD I’ve ever attended and most engaging. You made the learning fun yet kept us challenged everyday. Thank you for all of your help and I look forward to seeing you in the future.”
“I really enjoyed being in your class and am looking into taking more courses.“