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Computer Science

Classroom strategies to apply Design Thinking in CS  and Technology courses

Design Thinking is an approach to solving difficult problems, widely adopted in industry and healthcare. This hands-on session, will start with a crash course in Design Thinking, introducing our scaffolded worksheets (available as Google Slides and PowerPoints), picking one or more problems, and going through the first stages of DT. Teachers can come with their own problems, or groups will work on our pre-planned problem “How can we increase diversity in computer science and software engineering education and career pathways?” We like this problem because you will be able to role-play parents and grade 7-10 students making career decisions. Participants will get a sharable link to our worksheets, and a link to our free book, so you are ready to implement DT in your classrooms. Attendance in the first DT workshop will be helpful, but not necessary.

Design Thinking approaches to STEM courses – Computer Science and Technology

Design Thinking is an approach to solving difficult problems, widely adopted in industry and healthcare. This interactive presentation will introduce the topic and discuss how it can be integrated into the high school curriculum, particularly in ICD2O and TAS1O. DT is used in many technology areas, and we welcome input from teachers in all areas of technology, but our examples will mostly be related to software—our area of expertise.

  • What is Design Thinking, and why is DT used from startups to IBM and Apple?
  • History of Design Science and Design Thinking.
  • Role of empathy.
  • Failure modes we have observed and how to avoid them.
  • Characteristics of a good design problem and one which has worked for us: “This is your grandfather’s gaming app.” 
  • What do professionals use for DT, and should you introduce students to them? 
  • Design Journey Dashboard: Our research project addressing bottlenecks to scaling up teaching of design.
  • Reading list for delving deeper.

Reclaiming Thinking: Crafting AI-Resilient, Student-Centered Assignments

Generative AI has revealed a persistent issue in assessment design: many traditional assignments can be completed without sustained student thinking. Instead of attempting to make assignments “AI-proof,” this session examines how to design AI-resilient, student-centered tasks that make thinking visible, authentic, and accessible. Grounded in the ADAPT framework (Authentic, Dynamic, Active, Personalized, Transparent), the session introduces the Assignment Strengthener custom GPT as a practical design aid for stress-testing and strengthening assignments. Participants will see concrete examples across subject areas and leave with clear strategies for creating assignments that function effectively in AI-rich classrooms.

Playing with AI: Exploring Innovation Beyond ChatGPT

Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming education, but there’s a whole world of models and APIs beyond the consumer products you might know. In this hands-on session, we’ll move past the hype and explore the technology itself.  This talk will help you understand how to evaluate different LLMs and use them for your specific task. It will explore the topic of prompt engineering and how to optimize this.
 
This session will allow you to explore different LLM’s and understand their cost structure.  You will get a chance to try out different models and leave with the practical knowledge around LLM technologies and how to make use of it for yourself and for your students.

Diving into the revised AP CS A in Grade 12 CS with Java

The AP Computer Science A curriculum was updated for 2026 and in this session we will examine these updates. We will explore a course plan that is aligned with the ICS4U curriculum and AP CS A. Our focus will include: instructional strategies, assessment and evaluation methods, and project management tools that may want to consider for your classroom. 


Note that in this session we will use an online tool (pickcode.io) and also a full IDE Eclipse.
We will explore opportunities to go beyond the curriculum with JavaFX as well.