The Washington State Legislature recently passed a bill that will allow computer science (CS) to be counted as a math or science requirement toward high school graduation.
While the bill still needs to be signed by Gov. Jay Inslee to become law, Redmond-based Microsoft Corp. has been working to bring CS to high schools throughout the area for a number of years. Through the company's Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS) program, company employees team up with schools to teach high schoolers how computers work.
On Monday, Microsoft took this to the next level by hosting the TEALS Field Trip, a conference for middle school and high schoolers, which brought more than 800 students from more than a dozen Puget Sound-area schools to its Redmond campus.
Although small student groups have visited the Microsoft campus in the past to learn more about the company and different opportunities in the field, Akhtar Badshah, senior director of citizenship and public affairs at Microsoft, said the TEALS Field Trip event was the first time the company has held such an event on a large scale.
Badshah, who manages TEALS, said the hope is to make it an annual event.
EDUCATING THE NEXT GENERATION
The event began with a Code.org video discussing the importance of CS in today's technology-centered society, opening remarks by TEALS founder Kevin Wang and Code.org founder Hadi Partovi.
During his speech, Partovi shared some statistics with the group. He said out of all the students in the country enrolled in math or science classes, only two percent are taking classes related to CS or computer programming. On the other hand, Partovi said 60 percent of math and science jobs have some sort of CS or computer programming element.
"What's wrong with this?" he asked the crowd.
Partovi told the students they were part of a rare group who have access to courses in this ever-growing and increasingly relevant field. Others aren't as lucky.
"Nine out of 10 schools don't even have (CS) on the menu," he said about such courses' availability.
Monday's event also featured a question-and-answer session with a panel of industry professionals and an opportunity fair.
At the fair, students were also able to talk with representatives from local colleges and universities such as DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, University of Washington (with representatives from the Seattle and Bothell campuses) and Seattle Pacific University to learn about the various degree programs they offer.
Gillian Lovejoy, a sophomore at Lake Washington School District's STEM School in Redmond, said she thought it was cool to be able to talk to the colleges to learn about the different options available.
Her classmate and fellow sophomore Kora Krumm added it was also nice to talk to the schools and learn what steps they should take if they wanted to continue in the industry.
A VARIETY OF JOB OPPORTUNITIES
In addition, the fair also featured representatives from tech-related companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and ArenaNet ? all of whom are based in the Pacific Northwest or have local campuses. Students were able to talk with people currently in the industry, pick their brains and ask questions ? an opportunity Felipe Romero of ArenaNet, a game-development company from Bellevue, would have loved when he was younger.
"I always wanted to grow up and make games," he said.
Romero said ArenaNet was at the fair because they wanted to help encourage kids to join the industry.
Badshah said the goal of Monday's event is to get kids excited about CS, show them how relevant it could be in various industries ranging from gaming to the arts to film. And with the opportunity fair, students were also able to see what types of jobs are available and the type of educational paths they should take to get there.
"There are all sorts of opportunities that we're getting them to understand," Badshah said.
Contact Redmond Reporter Reporter Samantha Pak at spak@redmond-reporter.com or 425-867-0353, ext. 5052.Source: http://feeds.soundpublishing.com/~r/redmondall/~3/pCRzwaBGWWQ/205322701.html
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