[Chicago] Python for Teachers (more agit prop)

[kirby urner]

Picture a K-12 pipeline, where you're provided with toyz (e.g. MIT
Scratch, Logo robotics), scouting for boyz (girlz leading), and now
you're finally ready for the real deal:  very lexically intensive,
grammatically strict programming ala a real production code language
such as Python.  Doesn't mean "no eye candy" though; we have VPython
for that, other tools, audio too if all goes swimmingly well.

Say starting in 8th grade (slow phase in) you're starting to learn
about namespaces, why they're such a good idea.  The curriculum is
geographically aware, as we're reconnecting pre-computer "math" to the
"real world" (via relinking geometry to geography) there by getting a
whole new track:  one that matters, is relevant (what a difference!).

Upshot:  by the time you're in 12th grade, you know RSA cold,
including Euler's Theorem, Miller-Rabin for probable primes, and the
Extended Euclidean Algorithm (EEA).  Kind of like Sarah Flannery does
(using Mathematica instead), the teen hero of 'In Code' (shades of
'Cryptonomicon').

Picture Portland, Oregon in the process of implementing this pipeline,
and sending one of its minions, a slick (snake-oily?) guy, to Chicago,
to meet with an inner circle committee, disguised as a Python
workshop, Thursday, March 26, afternoon session, maybe get some action
going in the Big Windy?  Seriously, we're still a small group and math
teachers wanting in-service credit and/or monetary compensation for
getting the inside story shouldn't feel shy making a case to some
administrator or other.  Short notice I realize.

Here's a handout for the workshop which you're free to download and
reprint (in color? -- lucky you if you have color laser) for your
younger sister's high school geometry teacher, or your cousin's
calculus teacher or whatever -- some brand of high school math teacher
and/or college professor who might have a sincere interest in the
future of K-12 education in this country, as well as in other, more
advanced and intelligent countries (dig, dig).  Seriously, I've
presented the same material in Sweden and Lithuania, elsewhere, and
they're not slow on the uptake.  We should feel glad that we're not
all alone in Portland, have friends in faraway places (like Chicago?).

The handout:  http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/p4t_notes.pdf

More details at the Pycon site.

Kirby Urner
Institute for Science, Engineering
    and Public Policy (isepp.org)
Portland, Oregon

See: osgarden.appspot.com | MOTD for more bio...