CSTA-MN March Newsletter
Kate Lockwood
CSTA-MN Newsletter: March 2026
🚀 Welcome from CSTA-MN!
Hello CSTA-MN Members and Friends!
We had a great February meeting learning about student and teacher opportunities this summer.
Claire Dietz from the University of Minnesota Nano Center shared a variety of K-12 activities available, including:
K-12 field trips, including tours of the clean room!
Teacher research experience in the summer ($8000 stipend)
Try Engineering 2-day workshop ($500 stipend)
College in the schools
Resources for K-12 teachers
Opportunities from Girls Who Code and Code Savvy were presented. A variety of student- and teacher-facing materials are available.
Slides are attached to this email
Reach out to Ashley Goetz for more information (ash...@codesavvy.org)
Professor Tony Varghese from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls joined to talk about their Research Experiences for High School CS Teachers program
Rolling application deadline, apply by March 16v for a decision by March 30
The end product is a curriculum for your own classes based on your research experience
Other great CS-related PD opportunities - CSTA-MN compiled a list of upcoming CS-related opportunities for the Spring and Summer
Book corner - representation matters! This week’s books feature a wide range of children and offer some great unplugged activities for the summer.
We also had a great impromptu conversation about AI at our schools/districts. Great CSTA-MN resources are the Bloomington Public Schools (reach out to Alexandra Holter) and Red Wing schools (reach out to Tom Cozzolino to hear about their collaboration with Northern Lights). If you have great AI resources from your school or district that you’d like to share, please reach out to someone on the leadership team.
Here are the slides from our February Meeting with additional information from our speakers.
📅 Upcoming Chapter Meeting: Data Science and CS
Our next CSTA-MN Chapter Meeting is scheduled for April 1 at 3:45 PM via Google Meet
This month, we’ll be exploring resources and tools for integrating data science into the computer science classroom. We’ll see some classroom-ready resources from CSTA-MN members.
When: Wednesday, April 1, 3:45 PM CST
Future meeting dates and topics:
April 26, 2026: Physical computing and robotics
May 20, 2026: End of the year wrap-up
💡 Professional Development & Resources
Looking to expand your teaching toolkit or find new resources? Check out these opportunities:
1. Nominate yourself (or a colleague) for a CSTA-MN leadership position!
It’s such an important time to be working in computer science in Minnesota! Licensure standards are coming out soon, we’re working our way up the state rankings, and our computer science teachers are doing great things every day! We’d love to have YOU join the CSTA-MN leadership team to help drive our success over the next school year! All leadership positions are open and run on a school year calendar (so you’d serve September 2026 - August 2027). The time commitment varies depending on the role, and we work collaboratively as a leadership team to make sure everything gets done. Please reach out to a current board member with any questions and fill out the (SHORT!) leadership nomination form available here by May 1.
2. EdCon 2026
Join Cyber.org for EdCon 2026. This Cybersecurity conference is June 16-18 in Reno, NV. Registration is only $75 for K-12 educators! You can learn more from this flyer or at cyber.org/edcon
3. Save the date for Empower 2026!
Empower is an engaging, 3 day professional development opportunity. As a participant, you will have the opportunity to choose from one of several computing and AI workshops that best align to your experience and professional learning goals. Along with the workshops, there will be whole group events for participants to connect with other educators and organizations working to expand computer science education across the state. Workshops will be announced soon and will include opportunities for all grade levels and experience levels!
Dates: August 4-6, 2026
Location: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Cost: To be determined
Registration Information coming soon!
Overview of the event
Sign up for the Northern Lights Collaborative mailing list to receive the latest information when registration opens!
4. MN+CS has been rescheduled!
MN+CS is officially back for a second year! This year’s conference was rescheduled and will now be the day before Empower - come to the Twin Cities for TWO opportunities at high quality CS Professional development!
Save the date: MN+CS conference Monday, August 3, 2026
Location: Dunwoody College of Technology
Proposals reopening soon!
⭐ Member Spotlight: ????
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📚 Book Corner 🌈
This month we are taking a little break as we put together a reading list for summer and finish up some longer YA novels related to CS. Tune in next month for books with themes of video gaming, romance, and bots!
📣 Stay Connected
Join the conversation and connect with other Minnesota CS educators!
Have newsletter items? Email kloc...@spa.edu
Minnesota CSTA Chapter Advancing computer science education for all students.