A junior, Thomas Freiberg, approached me a while ago with an
idea: can we have a ‘hack-a-thon’ at the school? As an administrator, I
bristled at the word ‘hack’ and my first impulse was to kindly discourage him.
Thomas explained what such an event entailed and we decided to give it a try.
Over the course of several months, we put the event together – arranging spaces
in the building, ordering kits and reaching out to presenters from various
technology fields – and began to see who’d be interested.
This morning, fourteen NCHS students are working in teams on
coding or robotics projects that they will present at the end of the day. Some
are in the AP Computer Science Principles class, some are members of the VEX
Robotics Club, some are just computer hobbyists.
As an old social studies teacher, I have no idea what
they’re saying to each other or about which they’re making inside jokes. What I
do recognize is creativity, collaborative problem-solving and mutual respect
for the skills and insights each team member brings to the project. When the
reach a point where they could say they’re finished, one makes a suggestion on
how their project could be even better. I’ve been getting questions like, “Can
I go get a [certain tool I don’t know]?” and “Can we add sensors so that they
robots can [do something I don’t honestly understand]?” I’ve had CTE Chair and
technology educator, Jim Zambarano, on speed-dial all morning. Other staff members and students will be
filtering in and out all day, seeing what their peers are doing; witnessing
what can be done with an idea.
