Join us for an exciting 3-day computer science professional development!
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 expanding computer science education across the state. Workshops will be announced in spring 2026, but will include options for all grade levels and experience levels.
Dates: August 4-6, 2026
Location: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Cost: To be determined
2026 Empower{MN:CS} Workshops
Empower{MN:CS} aims to offer a variety of workshops that support educators in learning about and teaching computing to their students. Workshop offerings are still being determined for August 2026, but will be posted in spring 2026. Previous years have included the following workshops:
- Introduction to Computer Science & Computational Thinking
- Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
- ExperienceCS
- Coaching for Equity in Computer Science
- Data Science & Programming
- Teaching Debugging
Schedule
Note: Participants will sign up for one workshop for the entire 3-day conference. Each day, all registered participants of the conference will gather for an EmpowerUp session.
8:00 - 8:30 am Registration and Breakfast
8:30 am - 4:30 pm Workshops and Lunch*
*Each day, we will offer an EmpowerUp session. In the past, this has included tours of UMN computing centers, CS Playground, updates from the Minnesota Department of Education, and other guest speakers.