By: Denise Canniff
February 10, 2016
Inwood Academy scholars had the privilege of participating in a coding event this month—CS50 Hackathon NYC. We were just one of nine schools invited to participate in this Microsoft sponsored event.
The hackathon was more than a room filled with free t-shirts, bags, candy, and pizza. It was a collaborative computer science learning environment where students were helping students, educators from one institution helping students from another, and all making sure everyone was engaged and supported. I sat in on one of the pull out sessions that our three middle school scholars attended and I found it fascinating, as a non-computer science major, to see how CS50 first teaches students how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently, rather than to show them how to write a line of code. During this session, Isaac, one of our students, answered the instructor’s question and she said to him “I guess you could teach this class.” Did I mention that our scholars appeared to be the only middle school students at the event?
Our students met Harvard computer science professor David J. Malan. He started CS50 at Harvard and it has become one of the the most popular courses on campus—yes, computer science. They now offer a free adaption of CS50 for high schools that will satisfy the new Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles curriculum.
Former Inwood Academy teacher and current volunteer Jeff Maxim started a CS50 course for Inwood Academy students and he graciously arranged with Microsoft to have our students participate in the CS50 Hackathon NYC. It’s volunteers like Jeff and partners like Microsoft and Harvard that are making a difference for Inwood Academy students. And it’s supporters like those who donated to our Classroom Technology Campaign that are allowing us to create a more effective personalized learning model for our students. Learn more about the campaign or donate to it here: https://inwoodacademy.org/donate/
