Program for Snap!Con 2020

Kristen Reed, Paul Goldenberg, Kate Coleman, June Mark, Deborah Spencer, Bernat Romagosa

The Math+C project at Education Development Center (EDC) is developing a coherent integration of CS ideas and skills into elementary mathematics, using programming as a language to help children express and explore mathematical ideas. We start from the broad hypothesis that programming, used this way, changes how children learn mathematics; and that it helps develop and expose children's com...
view more

Akos Ledeczi, Corey Brady, Brian Broll

Blocks-based programming environments have proven effective for introducing novices to programming. These environments are generally characterized by both a low threshold and wide walls (i.e., they make it easy to get started and students can create projects on a wide range of topics). These wide walls can facilitate creativity and cultivate student interest in computer science, as they enab...
view more

Nizar Ayed

A SNAP! of MQTT

MQTT is a dedicated protocol for message queueing and is among the best to use with the IoT. Its light payload messaging makes an ideal feature to communicate with servers with less power and less bandwidth. It is also secure and error prone which make it enough robust for critical industrial applications and environments.

Why Snap!

Matthias Kim

I would like to show how to utilize Snap!_ to prepare for learning Python: We have created Python language blocks in Snap! so the Snap! code can be generated into Python code and the blocks in SNAP also feel already Pythonish. The aim is to provide early success and an understanding of the Python language in Snap! before touching a text editor and getting into the world of syntax and typing....
view more

Mary Fries, Brian Harvey

Join us for a hands-on overview of the 2020 Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) curriculum updates in alignment with the revised Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) framework and according to teacher feedback. Snap! was created specifically to support the BJC curriculum, which was originally developed at UC, Berkeley and later adapted by Education Development Cente...
view more

Stefano Federici

Alternative block languages are created every day to introduce learners to computer programming by leveraging on their non-programming interests such as robotics, 3D printing, embroidery, arts. Those new programming environments are often extensions of general-purpose block languages such as Snap! or Scratch. Even if all the creators of new block languages want is often creating something ve...
view more

Servane Demol

Present a curriculum that covers a minimum of 10 hours of instruction to teach students in middle school or high school how to use Snap! and design thinking processes to build awesome games. People will have access to a free online curriculum and a printed version when attending the workshop. (https://www.codeforf...
view more

Alexandra Abramova

Due to the current global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, Germany has introduced a nationwide school closure and therefore several weeks of home schooling. Teachers, students, and parents were faced with a new challenge of online teaching using exclusively digital media. This situation makes it possible to investigate how digital learning works under completely new conditions. The Sna...
view more

Snap! 6.0 includes hyperblocks, reporters that normally expect single numbers or words as input but can now also accept vectors (simple lists) or matrices (lists of simple lists), or even higher-dimensional arrays, and report similarly shaped results.

The idea behind this new feature is 58 years old. It comes from the book A Programming Language by Kenneth...
view more

Ken Kahn

In this workshop you’ll be given the opportunity to explore Snap! blocks for creating, training, and using deep neural networks. No prior experience with machine learning is required. It is best if participants have laptops with Chrome installed. The focus will be upon the resources in this guide: http...
view more

Corey Brady

Blocks-based programming is exciting for both students and teachers. But it can be daunting to manage a whole classroom working on different activities. How can you get students talking and sharing across projects?

This workshop introduces a simple tool--the Activity Gallery--that enables teachers to create and distribute “activity starters” to structure collaborative classroom work...
view more

Jeremy Millard

DiamondFire teaches coding concepts through a Minecraft multiplayer server. Using a drag-and-drop style coding system, students can create their own games directly within Minecraft. Students can collaborate and build games in real time, and they can also play each other's games together. DiamondFire achieves learning objectives using a unique, social environment and a game everyone loves!<...
view more

Dan Garcia

The Beauty and Joy of Computing is UC Berkeley's diversity-record-setting non-majors course that has achieved national recognition. It has been shared with over 800 teachers worldwide and has been endorsed by the College Board. Two years ago we started developing a Middle School version of the course, emphasizing functional programming, 2D and 3D graphics, student creativity, and engagement....
view more

Erin Whitaker, Tom Lauwers

Remote robots are robotics projects that can be accessed and programmed via the internet by anyone from anywhere. These robots use the NetsBlox platform, a multiplayer networking blocks programming environment that is derived from Snap!

This workshop h...
view more

Jens-Peter Knemeyer

One of the most important issues in many modern school curricula is the development of soft skills like teamwork, creativity, problem solving, self-organization and so on. On the other hand, also professional knowledge has to be acquired and methods have to be trained, which means for informatics training coding for instance.

In this workshop we show a possibility to combine both as...
view more

Mareen Grillenberger

Physical computing is an appealing topic for CS education (and probably many other subjects) from primary school onward. In many different contexts children and adolescents actively design and create their own interactive objects as tangible products of learning using methods and ideas of embedded systems design, programmable hardware and often block-based programming languages. It was shown...
view more