Ocean City High School Students Score Big at Coding Competition

Ocean City High School students took both second and third place in the Computer Science Teachers Association’s (CSTA) Southern New Jersey Computer Science Competition at Stockton University.

Annabelle Gartner and Nick Eisele took second place, and Collin Kelly and Austin Fox took third place.

Mainland Regional’s Jack Baxter, Lawrence Strenger and Matt Ognibene won first place.

More than 70 students from six area schools used the java programming language to solve a series of problems during the competition.

Other competing schools included Absegami, Egg Harbor Township, Millville, and Middle Township.

Bob Heinrich, chief information officer in the Office of Computer and Telecommunication Services, welcomed the students and told them, “You are growing up in a world that is much different” from his own childhood’s era, according to the University.

He recalled the early home computer he used as a child and explained that it had no internal storage and he had to write code to make it function. Then he pointed to the smartphone in his pocket as an example of the powerful computer devices of today.

“Code powers our digital world,” he said.

He also spoke of the expected growth in the number of coding jobs.

While the students competed, teachers and chaperones attended a lecture by Jacqui Chetty, a professor within the Department of Applied Information Systems (AIS) at the University of Johannesburg.

Chetty is visiting Stockton and area schools this month as part of a partnership between Stockton and her university.

The partnership aims to help teach students in South Jersey and South Africa about computer coding to prepare them for the growing number of careers in the field.

During her lecture, Chetty spoke of her experiences in the New Jersey classrooms she has visited. She said local teachers’ fear and anxiety about the technology disappeared in just 45 minutes as she introduced the fundamentals of coding and Scratch, a free programming language and online community for creating interactive stories, games and animations.

The teachers were amazed at how fun and easy it was to build a small program when given the fundamentals, she explained. Chetty went on to say that only 10 percent of U.S. schools offer computer programming.

Chetty met Amy Ackerman, an associate professor of Instructional Technology at Stockton, while they were each representing their universities as speakers at a conference in Finland. Their exchange of ideas developed into a partnership that has dedicated $11,500, with matching funds from both universities, to advance coding education.

Before the awards were presented, Demetrios Roubos, assistant director of Information Systems and Security administrator at Stockton, shared his personal experiences as a former Stockton student, employee, and as an enthusiast of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as well as gaming.

He spoke of the physics behind popular games and the how science and entertainment are intertwined. “Take a look at your smartphone. Someone is getting paid to design it. That could be you,” he said, as he explained the diverse careers in the field.