Education Summit

In 2022, PyCon US will be holding its 10th annual Python Education Summit in-person!

  • When: Thursday, April 28, 2022
  • Time: 9:00am
  • Where: Salt Palace Convention Center - Room 151DEFG

The Summit is a gathering of teachers and educators focused on bringing coding literacy, through Python, to as broad a group of audiences as possible. We invite educators from all venues to consider joining the discussion, share insights, learn new techniques and tools and generally share their passion for education. We are looking for educators from many venues: authors; schools, colleges, universities; community-based workshops; online programs; and government. Not only will we have a wide array of full-blown talks, we will also have a round of lightning talks!

Theme

The theme for this year will be myths. We want this year to explore myths around learning, teaching, content, access, etc. within the context of Python and computing education. These could include, but not limited to:

  • the learning styles myth
  • computer science myths, eg geek gene, bimodal grades, etc.
  • assessment myths

You are welcome to freely interpret myths!

Presenting

We will have a track of talks during the morning session and (tentatively) "mini-sprints" afternoon session. We invite anyone interested in Python and education to submit proposals. Talks / mini-sprint ideas will be selected based on feedback received.

Talks: 20-minute talk + 5 minutes of questions (the schedule allows for an extra 5 minutes in case things run over)

Lightning talks: will be selected from the main talks

Mini sprints (tentative, depending on submissions): This will be a short work session, designed by a proposer. These may include: a working group to review/edit some open source material, outline the needs or structure for a specific set of best practices, a short workshop on a tool or technique, etc. Caution: proposals that are made to support or train on a commercial product and other "infomercial" proposals are not likely to be accepted. Examples: play with circuit python, review modules or assessments in an open access book, discuss best practices for certain teaching techniques, etc.

Proposals are now closed! Thanks for submitting a talk.

Goals

The goal of the Summit is to bring together leaders from multiple educational venues to:

  • learn more about each other’s efforts
  • gain useful insight from each other
  • form connections that might foster future collaboration
  • identify common issues and begin discussing ways to attack them
  • create an enhanced sense of unity, purpose, and community among teachers of Python, wherever they might be

It is our hope that the Summit will serve as a catalyst leading into the rest of PyCon US to encourage even more interaction - hallway discussions, open spaces, lightning talks, and sprints.

Anyone attending this summit will gain a broader understanding of approaches, issues, resources, and constraints in teaching Python, will have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion and will make contacts with other teachers of Python from across the community.

Schedule and Format

The Education Summit takes place on Thursday, April 28th

We will have our talks and lightning talks presented, hopefully with plenty of time for questions and breakout discussion.

Talk information will be added as our presenters confirm their attendance.

Our current schedule is below, all in Salt Lake City (Mountain) time:

  • 9:00-9:30: Opening remarks
  • 9:30 - Helen Hu: Engaging Students in Learning Python with Better Discussions and Activities (Slides)
  • 10:00 - Reuven Lerner: How learning Chinese made me a better Python instructor (Slides)
  • 10:30 - Daniel Chen: Designing Domain-Specific Data Science Materials and Leveraging Long-Term Practice (Repo)
  • 11:00 - Kattni Rembor: Simplicity and Fun: Learning with CircuitPython (Slides)
  • 11:30 - Kelly Paredes & Sean Tibor: Busting Curricular Myths of Teaching Python (Slides)
  • 12:00 - Biyi Wen: The Tree Project: A Playful Approach To Understand Abstract Data Structure
  • 12:30 - 1:30: Lunch break
  • Afternoon session
  • 1:30-1:45 afternoon welcome, introducing the afternoon agenda, including lightning talks
  • 2:00-3:00 Lightning talks
  • 3:00 - 4:30: mini sprints & birds of a feather discussions

What to expect?

We encourage all attendees to engage in the dialogue. We are anxious to hear your questions, see your ideas and experience your passion for education and Python. So please come willing to learn, to participate and, most importantly, to teach.

If you have questions, please contact us.