MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University and its School of Computer Science and Information Systems will host a coding workshop later this month.

According to a press release, the workshop, titled “Putting the Fun in CS Fundamentals: A Coding Workshop for the (Very) Busy School Teacher” takes place June 18-19 and 25-26.

The free workshop, which is open to teachers and students, will cover coding, website creation, micro:bits and other aspects of computer science. The workshop is an opportunity to prepare students and teachers for the 21st century workforce.

Each day provides a hands-on introduction to a new technology, an opportunity to work through exercises pertinent to students, and the chance to develop lesson plans and test them by teaching to peers.

Three tracks are being offered.

• A beginning track does not require background knowledge and teaches the basics. A gentle introduction from experienced professionals on Scratch, micro:bits, web development and Hour of Code is included.
• An advanced track is targeted for participants with experience or attendance at past workshops. An immersive introduction to Python, a novice-friendly programming language, will be the highlight.
• The code.org track is geared toward K-5 teachers and includes beginning track topics, but focuses on code.org. Code.org has free, updated activities and resources for teaching computer science to lower grade levels.

One to two credit hours are available for graduate students at Northwest and a professional development certificate is available online.

For more information, contact Beccy Baldwin at [email protected] or (660) 562-1995 or Michael Rogers at  [email protected] or (309) 825-6454. Registration is available online.