Hoboken High School Computer Science Students ‘Future Ready’

(via Hoboken Public Schools)

Hoboken High School’s computer science program is ensuring students are ‘future ready’ in the rapidly changing and growing world of technology.

The Hoboken Public School District is highlighting its offering as research shows 93% of parents want their schools to teach computer science, but just 40% of schools in the United States offer it when computing is projected to make up two-thirds of new jobs in STEM.*

Students are not only learning the skills and the latest tools necessary to use technology – they are being empowered to create technology solutions with engaging computational thinking, unique industry experiences and real-world practice.

Hoboken High School uses America’s top Project Lead the Way Computer Science curriculum. In addition to offering two courses, Computer Science Essentials and Computer Science Principles, Hoboken High School is adding a new Computer Science A course for students in the 2018-2019 school year.

Students are also competing in a variety of national contests including: Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot, Sans Institute’s Girls Go CyberStart, Carnegie Mellon University’s picoCTF competition and Harvard’s CS50 Puzzle Day.

Committed to delivering students with an educational experience that goes beyond the classroom, Hoboken High School Computer Science classes visited Google, Jet.com, Harvard, Ramapo, NJIT and Hudson County Community College this school year – where they got unique insights into the industry’s best technical, marketing and human resource teams.

Students are also eagerly embracing the opportunity to participate in the NJIT SPLASH Program, Girls Who Code Summer Program, Hudson County Community College ‘Girls in Technology: Symposium’, AAUW Teentech Convention, MIT App Inventor Team Programs, as well as, theJersey City Medical Centre and RWJ Barnabas Health STEM Showcase.

“We are very proud of our Computer Science program at Hoboken High School,” says Hoboken High School Principal, Ms. Robin Piccapietra.

“Our wonderful students are getting a unique opportunity to develop their in-demand knowledge, while gaining valuable skills for success in education, the world of work, and life in general.”

“Education doesn’t stop at the school door here. We take students beyond the classroom walls to the heart of innovations and industry developments. Hearing from industry experts and asking them questions about the field is a key part of our student’s learning journey, as they work out who they want to be in the future.”

The new Computer Science A course will be a traditional college level class that is equivalent to a first semester Computer Science Course. Students will use Java to write Android Apps. The three levels of Computer Science courses at Hoboken High School give students a solid introduction to computational thinking and programming skills.

“Students learn the ability to write code and apply those skills to solving real-world problems,” says Hoboken High School Computer Science Teacher, Mr. Matthew Cheng.

“We see that when students understand Computer Science and as the Apple mantra goes – they think differently. For example, once students have built Apps using MIT App Inventor, they can use this knowledge to build Apps that find the cheapest pizza in Hoboken on a map, remote control a robot or create flashcards to help study for a quiz.”

“It is really rewarding to see my students thrive and so engaged – actively learning materials, working with their peers and excitingly applying this knowledge to create innovative solutions for problems in everyday life,” said Mr. Cheng.

*Trends in the State of Computer Science in U.S. K-12 Schools

About Hoboken High School Computer Science Curriculum:

Hoboken High School uses the Project Lead the Way Computer Science curriculum, an activity, project, and problem-based (APB) instructional design that centers on hands-on, real-world activities, projects, and problems. The APB approach scaffolds student learning through structured activities and projects that empower students to become independent in the classroom and help them build skill sets to apply to an open-ended design problem. The Computer Science Essentials is an introductory course that uses MIT App Inventor, a block based programming language that introduces students to computer science constructs and computational thinking while building Android Apps, and Python, a high level text based programming language used throughout industry. Computer Science Essentials is followed by Computer Science Principles, a new based College Board endorsed course designed to get students interested in Computer Science. Computer Science Principles introduces students to the big ideas of computer science including abstraction, algorithms, cybersecurity and the impact of computing. It has a broad overview and uses Scratch, MIT App Inventor, Python, PHP, HTML, CSS and MySQL.