On Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020, the DFW CSTA chapter held two events hosted at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas.
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On Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020, the DFW CSTA chapter held two events hosted at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas. The two events are the DFW CSTA Collaborative Conference 2020 and Digital Divas 2020.
DFW CSTA Collaborative Conference 2020 was our third annual regional conference. During this conference, we celebrated our 10th anniversary. On Feb. 8, 2010, we became a CSTA chapter. During the conference, we offered a few sessions for participants to choose to attend. Presenters were mostly DFW CSTA members. You can learn more about our sessions and check out event pictures by visiting our Professional Development section of our website. This event was funded through the CSTA Chapter Grant program.
One of my favorite parts of the conference is to recognize an outstanding CS teacher. Last year, we established the DFW CSTA CS Educator of the Year award. This year’s winner was Robin Bailey, DFW CSTA’s Treasurer and CS teacher at Plano West Senior High School. Robin is a leader in our region supporting teachers not only in the Plano Independent School District but throughout our region. She serves as a coach for her campus’ Computing Club, too. The recipient of this award gets a framed certificate and several teaching resources for their CS classroom.
Our region started Digital Divas years ago to engage girls in computer science. Digital Divas 2020 had its largest attendance ever. With nearly 300 high school girls and about 30 middle school girls in attendance, participants heard an inspiring keynote from two female executives from HP and NTT Data Services. Middle school girls participated in an AI Bot Camp sponsored by Capital One. Capital One’s Basic TrAIning curriculum is free to implement at schools nationwide. High school students participated in workshops related to preparing for college, how to get started in a CS career path, and hearing from current college students in the field. Following the competitions, high school students competed in teams of three against other girls. There were three categories in which to compete: novice, intermediate and advanced. We wrapped up the day with giveaways and awarding trophies to the winning teams. DFW CSTA member and Lewisville ISD CS teacher Jared Stites served as the event director. DFW CSTA member and Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD CS teacher Alyssa Nabors served as the event assistant director and will be the director for Digital Divas 2021. Our DFW CSTA members and officer team helped support this event and make it a success. Check out photos from the event here. This event was sponsored by various companies, universities and others in our region.
Check out our chapter’s website to learn more about what DFW CSTA is doing throughout the year. Any secure area of this site can be accessed with your CSTA login and password. If you would like to learn more about either event, feel free to reach out to me at dan.blier@pisd.edu or tweet me @dan_blier.