Your students can present at Pycon AU 2018
This year the Australian Computing Academy is helping to organise the Education specialist track at Pycon AU and for the first time at we are inviting high school students to apply to present at a Student Showcase for the afternoon session of the Education Specialist track. Do you have students who are excited by Python? Have you got a student with an interesting project in any year? Would your students like to share their learning and their expertise with other students and teachers? We want to hear from them!
Applications are now open through the PyconAU 2018 website. The showcase can be on anything Python related, whether a school assignment or passion project and chances are that if they are proud of it and you think it’s impressive then so will we so please encourage your students to apply.
For the last couple of years a number of us from the ACA have been quite involved in Pycon AU. It is an annual conference for Python learners, developers and enthusiasts which moves around the country to a different city every two years. For both this and next year it will be held in Sydney’s International Conference Centre.
Pycon AU includes a day of specialist tracks before the main conference and one of those tracks is Education; exploring how to effectively utilise Python and its libraries in the (generally high school) classroom. Previous presentations have included Using Python and Pygame for teaching Object Oriented programming, Using the App development capacity of Kivy senior students, MicroPython: Embedded programming for everyone, Python in Primary Schools and Learning Python with Minecraft (just to list a few).
While we have you, we’re also looking for presenters for the main section of the Education Specialist Track. This is perfect for teachers who are using python in interesting ways in their classrooms. Talk about the trials and tribulations you’ve faced and/or the blinding successes — they are both informative.
Finally, we’d like to encourage you to attend. The Pycon Au Education Specialist Track is designed to be a conversation about Python and its use and usefulness in education and the main conference itself it a fantastic learning opportunity for all facets of this very adaptable language. With the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies implemented (or very close to implemented) in all states now, it’s mandatory that we teach Year 7 and 8 students using a “general purpose” programming language and Python is a very accessible example for novices.
