Hills Students Embark On A Night Of Coding

AP Computer Science students show younger students the range of activities that can be performed using computer code.  Photo/Half Hollow Hills School District

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

Around 1,000-1,500 students, teachers and community members from the Half Hollow Hills school district gathered at the West Hollow Middle School in Melville last week to celebrate the district’s second annual Night of Code.

The event is designed to showcase the districts many coding and STEM opportunities that are available for students from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

Jolynn Sapia, the director of technology, business and libraries at the Half Hollow Hills school district, said the event is meant to highlight the efforts that are being made to integrate some kind of computer coding into the curriculum for every student in the district.

“Every single student at every single grade level is doing some sort of coding project,” Sapia said. “We found curriculum ties so that instead of just coding something to say ‘hello,’ the students needed to create a program that would, for example, explain photosynthesis.”

The Night of Code started with a presentation during which Sapia explained that there are over a million unfulfilled jobs because not enough students are graduating with skills in computer science and coding.

The event featured a gallery walk where students and teachers demonstrated the many coding projects that are going on at each grade level in the district. Experts from various professional fields were also on hand to answer questions about coding in the workplace.

“We had an ask the expert section with three engineers from Apple, PSEG and Facebook, and the students were able to talk to them and figure out what type of career they could be going into and what courses they should take,” Sapia said.

The Night of Code demonstrations ranged in complexity from the youngest students learning the very basics of computer science to high school seniors who are using 3D printing and digital modeling to make prosthetics.

Students of all age groups participated in the event, and Sapia said it was encouraging to see high school kids helping the younger students with their projects.

Sapia said the overwhelming success of the Night of Code illustrates that both students and parents realize the importance of coding and computer engineering skills in today’s modern workforce.

“Everything now is digital, so having a background in coding is going to open up a ton of opportunities,” Sapia said. “Our goal is to make sure that these students, as they leave our walls, are college and career ready.”