Hacking in High School

Presented by Jonathan Chacko and Adam Nguyen @ Google and Beyond

Demo Project

A sample project we made in hack club

Hack Club

Hack Club is a global network of programming clubs where members learn to code through tinkering and building projects.

  • Project-Based & Student-Led Learning

  • Semi at your own pace

  • Started due to a lack of computer science classes

  • Use repl.it as a tool

Skills

  • Leader & Collaborator/Communicator - work on projects with others

  • Global Citizen - learn to navigate the internet and access resources to teach yourself how to accomplish a goal

  • Critical Thinker/Creative Innovator - writing good code (sustainable and efficient)

WMS Hack Club

  • First meeting - 2/18

  • Personal Website Workshop

    • workshop - community contributed, self guided coding tutorial designed to be completed within a club meeting

  • Over 40 kids attended the first meeting

  • We hope that the middle school kids will develop a love for coding and begin to develop their own apps and programs that benefit the world

    • That they will know more than we do and teach themselves things they don't understand

Form Fill

  • Created to make 7th grade science PBL easier to grade

      • Old version - built with a hodgepodge of spreadsheet formulas

      • New version - user installable and accessible

  • Coded in HTML, CSS, and JS - same language as the color speak demo

Hackathon

A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking marathon) is a design sprint-like event; often, in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, domain experts, and others collaborate intensively on software projects.

  • basically, a 24-hour code party (sometimes more)!

  • expert mentors on site to provide guidance

  • work on a project with a team of 1-4

  • submit projects to win prizes (iPads, Nintendo Switches, free flights)

  • no experience needed - breakout sessions designed for beginners

  • Food!

  • Host a hackathon in Humble ISD

Closing Questions

  • If you could go back to your Elementary or Middle school years what additional supports do you wish you would have had to help you succeed now?

  • At what point did having this problem or issue make you want to take action?

  • Is there something you wish you would have learned or done in Elementary or Middle school to help you with this now?

  • Is there a teacher/staff member in Elementary or Middle school that impacted you to take a risk or try new things? If not, that is ok, we are just seeing if there was anyone in earlier years that could get validation from something they did years before