After taking part in the recent Computer Science for Connecticut (CS4CT) Summit hosted by the Connecticut Computer Science Teachers Association (CTCSTA), both Newtown High School computer technology teacher Kristin Violette and Newtown Middle School computer integration teacher Rachel Smith reflected on the first of its kind event.'Adventures In Middle School Coding'

Ms Violette was the events chair for the summit and Ms Smith was one of the speakers. The CS4CT Summit 2018 was held at the Radisson Hotel in Cromwell on March 16. According to a release for the event, the summit was a statewide conference for kindergarten to twelfth grade educators and administrators to advance computer science education across Connecticut.

Ms Violette said the summit began coming together about a year ago, and she began helping the effort to plan the event last fall. There were presentations with panelists in the morning, on topics such as "Reaching All Students with Computer Science" and "Keeping Connecticut Competitive in the 21st Century." Later in the afternoon there were multiple breakout session presentations. Ms Smith submitted an application to be a presenter in December, and she was chosen as one of the afternoon presenters. More than 20 curricular resources were also offered in a round robin-style event, according to Ms Violette.

The day's theme, according to the release, was "Launching the Computer Science Revolution in Connecticut." The summit was the first of its kind in Connecticut, and it was designed to empower school districts across the state with resources and strategies to bolster computer science education across all grade levels. A core focus of the summit was to promote equity and broaden participation in computing, such that all students across the state have access to computer science education. For example, a landscape study of K-12 computer science education presented at the conference reported that only half of the survey's respondents indicated that computer science was taught at their school, according to CTCSTA. Of the 983 Connecticut students who took the AP Computer Science A exam in 2017, 231 were female, 61 were Latino, and 32 were African American.

"One of our main objectives of the summit was to spark interest in underrepresented populations," said Ms Violette.

According to CTCSTA, scholarships to attend were made possible by many generous partners, including EASTConn, Texas Instruments, CodeHS, and Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance, itself funded by the National Science Foundation.

"It was an unbelievable success," said Ms Violette, adding that the original plan was to invite 160 people; more than 225 people representing 80 districts ended up registering to attend.

Connecticut administrators, educators, and politicians attended the event, according to Ms Smith.

Ms Violette said CTCSTA's summit committee chairs wanted to offer something for everyone attending, from elementary school representatives to information on how to bring computer science to schools. Seth Freeman, a professor at Capital Community College, was the CS4CT Summit general chair.

"We had great presenters from Apple, Texas Instruments, Code.org, CodeHS," Ms Violette said. Sitting next to her, Ms Smith summarized, "The big names."

Ms Violette said the success of the summit will be measured by the amount of interest it generates.

Sitting in her classroom at NMS, Ms Smith said she geared her presentation for other middle school teachers.

"I called it "Adventures in Middle School Coding," because the state does not have official curriculum or curricula guidelines for computer science," said Ms Smith, with Ms Violette adding that the state is "moving quickly" in the direction of creating guidelines.

Ms Smith continued, "I wanted teachers to know that we are all in this together and we are all learning as we go."

Her presentation shared that at NMS, seventh and eighth grade students take computer integration twice a week for ten weeks of the school year. Eight hundred students use the desktop PCs and learn about digital citizenship, 3D design, computer applications, and an introduction to computer science. Her presentation also offered strategies for implementing new computer science resources and a brief overview of the available material.

One strategy for choosing new resources Ms Smith offered in the presentation was asking students to "beta test" something. According to the presentation, incorporating student voices in this way led to increased student engagement, and more creative approaches to demonstrating and understanding. She also offered tips for differentiation and personalized learning in her presentation.

"I think it went well. I got a lot of positive feedback at the end," said Ms Smith.

Computer science, Ms Smith said, teaches perseverance, problem solving, collaboration, and other traits that will be useful for students whether they go into the field or not when they grow up.

"I just think computer science is such an enriching subject," Ms Smith said, adding, "The skills that they learn will help them. I really believe that."

Ms Violette said she feels it is important that two of Newtown's computer science teachers took part in the summit, which she explained should show people at the state level that Newtown is interested in taking part in growing computer science programs.