K12 Open Minds Reminder - Sessions announced!
This is just a quick (and final) reminder that the K12 Open Minds conference is fast approaching. See http://www.k12openminds.org for more details - this is one of the few conferences devoted to Free and Open Source Software in K-12 education. There are two updates worth mentioning. First, the preliminary sessions list is now available at http://www.k12openminds.org/sessions - check it out and consider joining us. Both Andy Harrington and I will be talking about teaching Python, and Walter Bender from SugarLabs will also be presenting. Second, the deadline for rooms at the conference rate of $97 a night has been extended to Tuesday, Sept 2. After that, the room rate will increase dramatically. So if you are planning to attend, book a room now (see the "Hotels" link on k12openminds.org). You should be able to book online all through the weekend. I know that time is short, but we hope you will consider joining us in Indy for this event. Cheers, Vern Ceder, K12 Open Minds Planning Committee -- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137
I'm glad this is happening Vern, and I've been studying the website. Your 'Open Source Options for Teaching Programming K-12' is probably somewhat like my Python Briefing in part, the gig I cater to math teachers in those schools with geek parents willing to kick up enough fuss to cause a mini-revolution in math teaching practices (few and far between so far nationally, these brewing tempests in teapots, but then Portland is "special" (Church Lady allusion)). If you find anyone pounding the podium about SQL pre-college, hooked with Venn Diagrams etc., maybe put them in touch with me? Even better if they're using Python for hands-on, with SQLite or whatever. It's a full scale offensive out here, getting more SQL in the high schools, with some really nasty whispering campaigns both directions (nothing new in math wars) plus nobody is sure what it'd mean for high school students to be doing inner and outer joins with possibly reckless abandon (we agree to safeguards, a sandbox, Polyhedra on MySQL a good place to start, including with blobs?). I'm not dragging edu-sig into it much though, as here we have the good CS professors, not the rabid AlgebraFirsters I'm talking about (Robert Moses et al), or students of Katrina Math program (cite Math Forum, math-teach). Colleges have a different set of problems, and besides, SQL isn't Python. Also, we don't like to over-politicize around here, I've learned from past experience. Kirby On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 9:50 PM, Vern Ceder <vceder@canterburyschool.org> wrote:
This is just a quick (and final) reminder that the K12 Open Minds conference is fast approaching. See http://www.k12openminds.org for more details - this is one of the few conferences devoted to Free and Open Source Software in K-12 education.
There are two updates worth mentioning. First, the preliminary sessions list is now available at http://www.k12openminds.org/sessions - check it out and consider joining us. Both Andy Harrington and I will be talking about teaching Python, and Walter Bender from SugarLabs will also be presenting.
Second, the deadline for rooms at the conference rate of $97 a night has been extended to Tuesday, Sept 2. After that, the room rate will increase dramatically. So if you are planning to attend, book a room now (see the "Hotels" link on k12openminds.org). You should be able to book online all through the weekend.
I know that time is short, but we hope you will consider joining us in Indy for this event.
Cheers, Vern Ceder, K12 Open Minds Planning Committee -- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137
_______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
Kirby,
If you find anyone pounding the podium about SQL pre-college, hooked with Venn Diagrams etc., maybe put them in touch with me? Even better if they're using Python for hands-on, with SQLite or whatever.
Will do... I didn't have time to respond to your original post on SQL in K12, but I like the idea. While I tend to use Python to explore the idea of "what is code and what can you do with it?", I can also see the power of using SQL to explore the area of "what is data and how can you manipulate it?" It seems to me that the two different paths could end up in similar places in the end.
Your 'Open Source Options for Teaching Programming K-12' is probably somewhat like my Python Briefing in part
As to my talk, it will end with using Python (and other languages) in project based courses, preferably interacting with real OSS projects, but will begin in elementary with things like Scratch and Pico boards, which let very young kids write code that interacts with the real world, something pretty powerful at all ages. Again, I wish we could have you there (and others on this list)... maybe next year. Cheers, Vern kirby urner wrote:
I'm glad this is happening Vern, and I've been studying the website.
Your 'Open Source Options for Teaching Programming K-12' is probably somewhat like my Python Briefing in part, the gig I cater to math teachers in those schools with geek parents willing to kick up enough fuss to cause a mini-revolution in math teaching practices (few and far between so far nationally, these brewing tempests in teapots, but then Portland is "special" (Church Lady allusion)).
If you find anyone pounding the podium about SQL pre-college, hooked with Venn Diagrams etc., maybe put them in touch with me? Even better if they're using Python for hands-on, with SQLite or whatever.
It's a full scale offensive out here, getting more SQL in the high schools, with some really nasty whispering campaigns both directions (nothing new in math wars) plus nobody is sure what it'd mean for high school students to be doing inner and outer joins with possibly reckless abandon (we agree to safeguards, a sandbox, Polyhedra on MySQL a good place to start, including with blobs?).
I'm not dragging edu-sig into it much though, as here we have the good CS professors, not the rabid AlgebraFirsters I'm talking about (Robert Moses et al), or students of Katrina Math program (cite Math Forum, math-teach). Colleges have a different set of problems, and besides, SQL isn't Python.
Also, we don't like to over-politicize around here, I've learned from past experience.
Kirby
On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 9:50 PM, Vern Ceder <vceder@canterburyschool.org> wrote:
This is just a quick (and final) reminder that the K12 Open Minds conference is fast approaching. See http://www.k12openminds.org for more details - this is one of the few conferences devoted to Free and Open Source Software in K-12 education.
There are two updates worth mentioning. First, the preliminary sessions list is now available at http://www.k12openminds.org/sessions - check it out and consider joining us. Both Andy Harrington and I will be talking about teaching Python, and Walter Bender from SugarLabs will also be presenting.
Second, the deadline for rooms at the conference rate of $97 a night has been extended to Tuesday, Sept 2. After that, the room rate will increase dramatically. So if you are planning to attend, book a room now (see the "Hotels" link on k12openminds.org). You should be able to book online all through the weekend.
I know that time is short, but we hope you will consider joining us in Indy for this event.
Cheers, Vern Ceder, K12 Open Minds Planning Committee -- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137
_______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
_______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
-- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137
Hello,
If you find anyone pounding the podium about SQL pre-college, hooked with Venn Diagrams etc., maybe put them in touch with me? Even better if they're using Python for hands-on, with SQLite or whatever.
FWIW, I am planning a lesson or two on SQL (presented in contrast to Python standard objects/lists/loops) for 12th grade pupils. The material probably will not be useful for anyone else though -- it's in Lithuanian. I would be very interested in a set of exercises, solutions to which would preferably not be trivially findable on the web. Any visual help (diagrams, etc.) would save time too. Those things do take some time to prepare. Best regards, -- Gintautas Miliauskas Vilnius Lyceum
Thanks for writing Gintautas, and so wonderful to hear from Vilnius, such a beautiful city... I'm making some headway with this Python Briefing component, here's some cut and paste from the shell:
from pysqlite2 import dbapi2 as sqlite con = sqlite.connect("gnugeom") cur = con.cursor() results = cur.execute("select greekname, volume from Polyhedra") results.fetchall() [(u'Tetrahedron', 1), (u'Hexahedron', 3), (u'Octahedron', 4), (u'Rhombic Dodecahedron', 6), (u'Cuboctahedron', 20)]
The related Vectors and Facets tables contain the details for populating Python string.Templates to give POV-Ray, X3D/VRML (and other) output formats, per my talk in Vilnius last year: http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/connectingthedots.pdf (3.2 MB -- slides 24 - 27 especially). My default volumes column may raise some eyebrows, as geometry teachers aren't used to those wholesome whole volume numbers, non-standard in K-12 textbooks -- but then they don't teach SQL either, which is why this is called GnuMath i.e. it's not just the usual stuff. Here's my .sql for that Polyhedra table, pretty sparse at the moment but sufficient for prototyping: CREATE TABLE Polyhedra ( greekname TEXT, shortname TEXT, vertices NUMERIC, edges NUMERIC, faces NUMERIC, volume NUMERIC); INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Tetrahedron','tetra',4,6,4,1); INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Hexahedron','cube',8,12,6,3); INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Octahedron','octa',6,12,8,4); INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Rhombic Dodecahedron','cell',14,24,12,6); INSERT INTO polyhedra VALUES ('Cuboctahedron','cubocta',12,24,14,20); A mini-course outline wherein this segment might fit, as a hands on activity: Tetrahedron 24 A Modules angles and edges plane net More Polyhedra vertices, edges, faces (OFF files) V + F = E + 2 (Euler) A & B Modules Just to translate a little: an A module is 1/24th of a regular tetrahedron as defined by its center of volume, a face center, mid-edge, and vertex. 12 left handed and 12 right handed build the shape. As and Bs together build all the shapes in our table, plus 2 As and 1 B build the MITE, a minimum space-filling shape (irregular tetrahedral). Again, this is not especially familiar nomenclature in today's high schools, which my company 4dsolutions exploits as a marketing advantage (we're not just doing what everyone else is doing). http://www.grunch.net/synergetics/modules.html Kirby On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 10:41 AM, Gintautas Miliauskas <gintas@akl.lt> wrote:
Hello,
If you find anyone pounding the podium about SQL pre-college, hooked with Venn Diagrams etc., maybe put them in touch with me? Even better if they're using Python for hands-on, with SQLite or whatever.
FWIW, I am planning a lesson or two on SQL (presented in contrast to Python standard objects/lists/loops) for 12th grade pupils. The material probably will not be useful for anyone else though -- it's in Lithuanian.
I would be very interested in a set of exercises, solutions to which would preferably not be trivially findable on the web. Any visual help (diagrams, etc.) would save time too. Those things do take some time to prepare.
Best regards, -- Gintautas Miliauskas Vilnius Lyceum
participants (3)
-
Gintautas Miliauskas -
kirby urner -
Vern Ceder