MICDE Seminar: Dan Garcia

Dr. Dan Garcia is a Senior Lecturer with Security Of Employment (SOE = “tenured” teaching faculty) in the Computer Science Division of the EECS Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the faculty in the fall of 2000. Dan received his PhD and MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2000 and 1995, and dual BS degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1990.  He has won all four of the department’s teaching awards, and holds the record for the highest teaching effectiveness ratings (6.7/7) in the history of the department’s intro courses.  He was chosen as an ACM Distinguished Educator in 2012.

4 p.m., Thursday, April 3, 2014,  Room 1670, Bob and Betty Beyster Bldg. (2260 Hayward)
Transforming K-12 Computer Science: The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC)

BJC was chosen as one of the initial pilots for a new, upcoming non-majors “Advanced Placement Computer Science: Principles” course to broaden participation in computing.  The goal of the “CS10K” effort is to prepare 10,000 new high school CS teachers to teach the AP course by 2016.  It was funded from the National Science Foundation to provide summer workshops for 100 HS teachers.  This talk will introduce the AP CS Principles framework, the BJC course, the engaging Snap! (Build Your Own Blocks, based on Scratch) development environment, and some of the exciting things being done in the Computer Science Education group at UC Berkeley to move the needle and broaden participation in computing.