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Posts by Ciphersoup

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The Hidden Code in Toy Adverts Image by Ben Kerckx from Pixabay The music in a toy commercial isn’t just background noise. It tells you who the advert is for, and a machine learning model can hear it (even when you barely …

Gender stereotypes aren't just visible, they're audible too
Toy advert music isn't just background noise. It tells you who the advert is aimed at. A machine learning model hears it even when you barely notice it's different. Luca Marinelli tells us more in our latest blog
cs4fn.blog/2026/03/31/t...

2 weeks ago 1 1 0 0

How have we dealt with cheating on homework in the past? That would be a good place to start.

2 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
White bulletin board with several signs for cs education week activities, and binary paper ring garlands.

White bulletin board with several signs for cs education week activities, and binary paper ring garlands.

They let me take a bulletin board! I need to up my bulletin board game, but this was really last minute.
#CSEdWeek #TeamCompSci

4 months ago 0 0 0 0

Happy #CSEdWeek! Since 2020, I’ve been sharing some of our lab’s research on gender equity in CS to celebrate. Despite progress in access/participation, disparities remain in K-12 CS education. (1/12) #WomeninSTEM #AcademicSky #PsychSciSky #DevPsychSky #SocialPsyc #EduSky #CompSky #GirlsLeadSTEM

4 months ago 9 4 1 0
Collage of screenshots of various student-created games, each with its own look and feel.

Collage of screenshots of various student-created games, each with its own look and feel.

Students have been blowing me away with their work this year. The creativity and individual expression are amazing. It's been great seeing their excitement when sharing their creations.

#Edusky #CSed #TeamCompSci

7 months ago 3 1 0 0
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Best. Job. Ever.

(gaming controllers kids designed for the games they're coding)

#EduSky #TeamCompSci #CSed

7 months ago 1 0 0 0
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#csta2025 CSTA Greater Los Angeles meet-up this morning.

9 months ago 5 1 1 0
CSTA workshop participants holding yellow rubber ducks

CSTA workshop participants holding yellow rubber ducks

Thank you to all the participants in the Cybersecurity #Unplugged workshop at #CSTA25, and congrats to everyone for freeing their ducks with excellent code cracking skills.

#CSed #TeamCompSci #releasethequacken

All this thanks to the great staff and volunteers at @csteachersorg.bsky.social!

9 months ago 3 1 0 0

I was there many years ago and was even able to talk to one of the women who operated the bombes. It's a lovely campus, too. Others told me a visit would just take a couple hours, but I spent a whole day there.

9 months ago 1 0 1 0

Usually only for a 'road trip', in which the journey is most of the point, or when moving house and needing to move the car. I drove 24h to see family, but stopped to sleep in the middle.

10 months ago 1 0 0 0
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It's a 35 hour drive, but I'll take a plane to save time!

10 months ago 1 0 1 0

Just submitted my slides for #CSTA2025, right at the deadline. I'm so excited for this conference! Thanks, @csteachersorg.bsky.social for putting this on. See you in Cleveland!

#TeamCompSci #CSEd

10 months ago 6 0 3 0

This looks like so much fun! I want to combine this with some other e-textiles (circuits/LED) next year with my new middle school group.

#CSEd #physicalcomputing

10 months ago 2 0 0 0

To clarify, I teach mapping, filtering, aggregate operations (HS). I teach loops, but not really traditional for or while loops. Of what you listed, the only thing (I think) required by the K12 standards is loops, but they can be taught in different ways (e.g. 'until' is easier than 'while').

1 year ago 1 0 0 0

I don't want to get in the weeds of which algorithmic constructs are important, but I would say in regards to belonging, vector and aggregate operations are as much real CS as anything else, and I'd rather change focus on constructs than take sense of belonging from K12. (I teach them both, btw)

1 year ago 1 0 1 0

Thanks, got it! I don't see anything in it about vector operations, but regardless I think that overall the paper is coming from the premise of what I was saying before that cognitive load is reduced not from particular algorithmic constructs, but from matching the learner's level of abstraction.

1 year ago 1 0 1 0

What do you mean by "computing education for non-CS"? Non-CS what? I agree that programming is used in different ways, but your point in bringing up vector programming seemed to be that it was an example of 'not CS' and I disagree with that anyway.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

That link doesn't work for me. Also, students in 5th grade tend to be 10 or 11 years old. A twelve year old would typically be starting grade 7 or ending grade 6.

1 year ago 0 0 1 0
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It's not about the tools. It's about cognitive development and age appropriateness. I also am not a fan of a lot of the ways that CS is taught, but that doesn't detract from my view that a sense of belonging is important.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

Bootstrap is not for K5. This type of abstraction is appropriate for algebra.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

Yes, if students are already operating at a higher level of abstraction, using a function that reflects that level would be less cognitively demanding than moving between levels of abstraction and constructing the underlying behavior. But that's not a question of repeats versus vector operations.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

My second point is that the very idea of operating in aggregate is going to be hard for K5, and it will need to be explained by having the students traverse the list by hand and construct a new list. It would not initially make sense to them to do it all at once. It's too abstract. (cont'd)

1 year ago 0 0 1 0

That's what I'm saying. If you compare using a loop to specifically do something that involves traversing a data structure in order to map an operation to all items, of course using a native mapping function will be easier. But that doesn't mean that mapping is easier than loops. (cont'd)

1 year ago 0 0 2 0
"• 1 + (1,2,3) evaluates to 2,3,4
• (1,2,3) + (2,3,4) evaluates to 3,5,7"

"• 1 + (1,2,3) evaluates to 2,3,4 • (1,2,3) + (2,3,4) evaluates to 3,5,7"

This paper doesn't appear to say that. It appears to say that if you want to map an operation or do an aggregate operation, it's easier to have native functionality to do that rather than to construct it with a loop. I doubt most K5 students would easily grasp below without explicit traversal.

1 year ago 0 0 1 0

Yes, totally agree that's an aim. I would also like to add that they should get what they need for personal fulfillment, too.

1 year ago 1 0 1 0

If that is the criticism, that you think it's too much to say that each student is an indispensable and integral part of how CS intersects with society, I think that's fair. I would like to know more about what the authors mean by 'indispensable'. The absence of one person won't collapse society.

1 year ago 1 0 0 0

But we don't start by saying 'you belong in CS' either. The idea is to create a curriculum that instills a sense of belonging, and to have that as an explicit goal that shapes the way we build courses.

1 year ago 1 0 0 0
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Yes, that does not talk about enrolling in any courses, declaring a major, or choosing a career path. I'm talking about CS as a discipline that exists as part of general society, and whether all students feel belonging and agency within that aspect of our shared culture.

1 year ago 0 0 1 0

Can you explain more about how vector operations are easier for a K-5 student to learn than a repeat loop? I'm having a really hard time understanding what that would look like in a K-5 classroom. What makes it more useful to a child's goals?

1 year ago 0 0 2 0

I have a lot of thoughts on this, too much for BlueSky posts, but I do think that a lot of this has to do with the way we approach in K8. I would question the ultimate goal of having CS classes 'draw in a majority of students', and if there's a better way to reach that instead.

1 year ago 0 0 1 0