Computer Science Education Week Celebrated With Scavenger Hunt At NHS
Members of the Newtown High School Coding Club met in advisor and computer technology teacher Kristin Violette's room after school on December 4, ahead of the first club-hosted scavenger hunt held in honor of Computer Science Education Week.
Members of the club put the finishing touches on the scavenger hunt before they headed out to find the locations in the school. The club volunteers each waited in areas of the building to help guide students to the next question and judge answers. Once everything was in place and participating students were ready to challenge themselves, Ms Violette welcomed everyone in attendance.
Ms Violette explained that club president and NHS junior Garrett Marino had "masterminded all of this."
Ms Violette shared her hopes that the event will be an annual scavenger hunt hosted in honor of Computer Science Education Week, which was recognized December 4 to 10 this year. Computer Science Education Week is organized by code.org, a public 501(c)(3), with support from the general public, according to its website.
The scavenger hunt contestants were tasked with answering five computer science-based challenges that were all designed to entice students to learn computer programming. Ms Violette said students did not need to know computer science to compete in the scavenger hunt.
Garrett said he felt the scavenger hunt was the "most interactive way to spread computer science interest."
A gift basket with assembled goodies, including a refurbished iPhone 6, was available for the winning team to collect. Garrett announced after the event that the orange team, Joel Duval and Bobby Elston, won the scavenger hunt.
According to Ms Violette, a physics class and a business class also participated in code.org's Hour of Code challenge, which had students learn about coding and practice coding for an hour.
Students at Newtown Middle School also participated in an Hour of Code, according to computer integration teacher Rachel Smith. Trivia was also incorporated into the morning announcements at NMS in honor of the week.