CSA Celebrates Computer Science Education Week

The CSA crew held it's fall semester meeting on December 9, 2014 featuring a lunch and learn session with Prof. Dan Knights on his research and fascinating results in "Hacking the Microbiome".  The business portion of the meeting centered on CSA associations and activities relevant to "Computer Science Education Week",
specifically the Coder Dojo movement and the "Hour of Code" initiative.  Prof. Knights, his team and collaborators' work is not only fascinating, it's practical and provides some very exciting insight into the human eco-system. It is also an exemplary and interesting application of computing.  I wish we had video of his presentation, but here's a link to Prof Knight's research lab.

In talking about what is happening in the metro area, Josh McGrath, a senior at Minnetonka High School and founder of the west metro's Tonka Coder Dojo chapter. Josh spoke about his experience as a mentor in the Twin Cities chapter which meets on campus at the STSS building and saw a need for this in the western metro. He founded the group in the spring of 2014 and by the end of summer had it up and running, of course, with help from other high schoolers and a crew of committed adults.  The Tonka Coder Dojo is focused more on middle and high school aged students with an interest in computing by offering groups that are aligned closer to the interests and skill levels of the 'older kids'. After 4 sessions, the Tonka chapter is already serving 100 kids (ages 7-17) with another 50 on the waiting list. A central tenet of Coder Dojo is the 3:1 student to mentor ratio -  everyone gets the attention they need.  Tonka Coder Dojo is supported by the Minnetonka School District and the high school administration. The Chapter holds monthly sessions at the Media Lab at Minnetonka High School.