HOUR OF CODE
Newington Public Schools Educational Technology Department and the Lucy Robbins Welles Library joined forces to host an Hour of Code Preview and Showcase event on Friday, December 2, 2016. The event provided participants with a look into computer sciences and computer coding with the help of Code.org®, a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding access to computer science. Through Code.org and their annual Hour of Code campaign students throughout the world are exposed to computer sciences during Computer Science Week (December 5-11). 2016 marks the second year that Newington Public Schools has participated in the Hour of Code event.
For the kickoff to Hour of Code week for Newington schools, staff from both the library and the district's Ed Tech Department, along with NHS Student Tech Support and TechSpert members, helped to expand computer science and coding out of the schoolhouse and into the community.
Many participants walked in without ever seeing a computer code and by the time the event was over, they had wrote 50 lines of code! The collaborative event between the schools and the library focused on the coding challenges and games through Code.org, but there were "unplugged" paper coding challenges as well as some special robots that complete tasks, challenges, and are controlled through code.
MAKER FAIRE
On Wednesday, June 14 John Paterson's Techsperts held their 1st Annual Maker Faire. At this event, students had a chance to explore different professions that make things by participating in activities led by our awesome JP Techsperts. Students spent the day making things as architects, scientists, engineers, designers, and more.
Thanks for MAKING it a great day for learning!
CEDAR MOUNTAIN COMMONS
Some members of the Educational Technology Department and NHS TechSupport got a chance to visit the senior citizens at Cedar Mountain Commons. During their time there, the idea of the Technology Bus was first announced and the participants got to learn about the various forms of technology our students are exposed to. Then they got to try Google Expeditions! Once of the participants said, "You are turning us into Kindergartners again!"
JOHN PATERSON TEKtalks
Meet our Techsperts from John Paterson Elementary School who explore positive and negative aspects of technology in friendly debates through a video segment they call “TEKtalk”. Technology in Education for Kids (TEK) Talk videos focus on comparing two technology items that are marketed to perform similar tasks. The Techsperts come up with their own topics, script, film, and edit their own videos.