Washington State House votes to count computer science for math/science credit

So cool!  There is a petition on the linked page (below) if you would like to express your support for this bill.

In overwhelming fashion, the Washington State House voted 95-3 to pass a new bill in the Washington State Legislature that may allow computer science classes to count as a math or science requirement toward high school graduation.

The bill now moves onto the Senate.

Currently, Washington high schoolers who take a computer science class don’t receive a math or science credit. HB 1472 would enable this and “provide initiatives to improve and expand access to computer science education.”

via Washington House votes to count computer science for math, science credit – GeekWire.

Stereotypes and Stereotype Threat Affect Computing Students | NCWIT

Hooray for NCWIT, for producing materials aimed at higher-education faculty to get them to change their teaching practices!  Stereotype threat is real (measurable, reliable, consistent), and can be addressed through better teaching.  It’s worth the effort to try to get faculty to pay attention to these issues.

This slide deck is a companion piece to the NCWIT Talking Point Card Talk with Faculty Colleagues About Stereotype Threat (www.ncwit.org/stereotypethreattp). You can hand out the card to your colleagues and then share these slides at a faculty meeting.

via Stereotypes and Stereotype Threat Affect Computing Students | National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Teaching Tree: A Source for CS Videos

Here’s a repository for videos that teach computer science.  Unlike Khan, it’s open to anyone to contribute.  Unlike YouTube, it’s only about teaching CS.

TeachingTree is an open platform that lets anybody organize educational content. Our goal is for students to quickly access the exact clips they need in order to learn individual concepts. Everyone is encouraged to help by adding videos or tagging concepts.

via Teaching Tree.