Upcoming Workshops

TechStart will offer several summer and fall workshops in 2010.  More information will be posted about these sessions in the coming months. Registration will open April 2010.

June 22 - 24, 2010
SuperQuest Summer Session
Hillsboro High School
Hillsboro, OR

“Stupid Browser Tricks” with PHP and JavaScripts
Instructor: Chris Winikka
Direct your class towards slick, but useful browser tricks. We’ll cover a variety of client and server-side scripts (JavaScript and PHP) that will, among other things, create dynamic menus, interactive image maps, and even cause that button to actually do something. Workshop includes programming and web design topics appropriate for programming or beginning and advanced web design courses. A general understanding of HTML is recommended, but not required.

Intro to Alice  2.2
Instructor: Jill Jordan                                          
This is the “essentials” workshop to get started teaching Alice.  From this workshop, you can expect to begin teaching Alice, or to move onto the next level offered at our SuperQuest Summer Institute in August—taught by Don Slater, who is part of the Alice Development Team at Carnegie Mellon.  We recommend you sign up for both workshops to get the full Alice experience!

K-12 Robotics
Instructors: Don Domes and Dale Yocum
This self-paced class is perfect preparation for coaching an FLL team or for bringing engineering and programming into the classroom.  Everyone, from the complete beginner to veterans, will get something out of this course.  We have curriculums from Elementary to High School and there is always a robust exchange of ideas.

STEM Coaching Skills and Stipends
Instructor: Ben Manny
Do you want to be paid for coaching an after school engineering club?  Come learn how to be a successful eCHAMP (Engineering CoacHing And Mentor Program) coach.  We will cover recruiting and team development; STEM coaching skills; fundraising;  and more—and show you how an eCHAMP program can pay for itself!

August 2 - 6, 2010
SuperQuest Summer Institute
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR

Our SuperQuest Summer Institute offers our most extensive course line-up.  It includes two days of CS4HS activities. 

What is CS4HS? 

CS4HS is a new effort by the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University to reach out to high school (and K-8) teachers to provide resources that help teach computer science principles to students in a fun and relevant way. 

Our Summer Institute will be enhanced with mini-workshops and presenters (more information will be available in the coming months), in addition to the following workshops:

Alice 2.2 – Intermediate to Advanced (3 Days)
Instructor: Don Slater
We are extremely pleased that Don Slater will present the second half of the Alice 2.2 workshop.  Don is a former Pittsburg high school teacher and now a CS professor at CMU and part of the Alice Development team.  His workshops are in high demand, so don’t miss this opportunity!  Being part of the Alice Development team, he knows all the tricks and special features of the software.  Prerequisite: the first half of the workshop (from Jill Jordan in June 2010 or from Don in August 2009) or the equivalent experience with Alice.

Game Programming for All Levels (3 Days)
Instructor: Terrel Smith
This workshop will explore game programming as a vehicle to attract students to the technology/engineering fields. We will examine game design engines, compare game design programming concepts to computer science concepts, and provide the opportunity to learn one game design platform while comparing it to others. We will explore model curriculum that uses game design to transition students into engineering and computer science and also consider game design as a stand-alone curriculum.
 
Java—two tracks available (3 Days)
Instructors: Don Kirkwood & Team
We will offer an Intro to CS Using Java session for those of you who know very little or nothing about Java but want to learn how to introduce computer science to students or set up an independent program for a small group.  We will also offer Topics for Advanced Programming Teachers.  Participants will be invited to request specific Java topics (OOD, ArrayLists, recursion, Hash/TreeMaps, etc).  A primary focus for both sessions will be implementing modules from our new Discrete Math (Math-In-CTE and/or math by proficiency) Project.

K-12 Robotics (4 Days)
Instructors: Don Domes and Dale Yocum
Wish you had more time than the Hillsboro High session in June?  Did you miss the June session all together?  Either way, we are bringing back a self-paced robotics class suitable for K-12 at OSU—this time for four days.

Web Design Layouts Made Simple (3 Days)
Instructor: Chris Winikka
There are many ways to design a web page, and many of them look great on your computer with your browser
but look like a train wreck on other browsers or browser versions. In this workshop, you’ll learn a variety of CSS tricks to make your pages pop on all browsers.  There will be something for every level of web design experience, and participants will receive a USB flash drive with programs to code your pages (Notepad++), test your pages on a variety of browsers, and more.

October 8, 2010
SuperQuest Fall Conference
Hillsboro High School
Hillsboro, OR

Workshops TBD

Past 2010 Workshops

February 20, 2010
SuperQuest Spring Conference
Willamette University
Salem, OR 

This conference included the following workshops:

• Introduction to the Virtual Worlds of Alice
• Tour of CS Unplugged - Computational Thinking without a Computer
• Saving Your Computer Science Courses
• Exploring Robotics

If you are interested in receiving updates about our training sessions, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and request to receive SuperQuest training updates.

Looking for past workshops?

Check out our 2009 workshops