Ossining High School Turns Annual Day of Code into STEM Fair

At the Ossining High School STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Fair earlier this month, students had a chance to fly a drone, learn how to code, and use compasses to make artwork. Stations led by teachers and student volunteers showcased activities related to Game & App Design, Math in Architecture, Science Research, physics and engineering courses.

The Dec. 8 event was an expansion of the Hour of Code activity that OHS holds each year and was intended to get students interested in studying these subjects.

“The whole point is really to open it up to students who are not typically exposed to these types of explorations or STEM experiences,” said Alexandra Greenberg, Ossining’s director of science, engineering and mathematics. “One of the goals is for students to get interested and sign up next year for courses like computer science; engineering; Game, App Design & Coding; and even physics. Another goal, of course, is to have fun.”

Schools around the world host Hour of Code events as an introduction to computer science and coding. They took place this year from Dec. 4-10, which was Computer Science Education Week. This was the seventh year OHS participated in the Day of Code, said Glenn Goldberg, who teaches OHS’ Game, App Design & Coding class. “If it’s done right, it’s fun. It doesn’t feel like work,” he said.

At the “Life Hacks” table, students filled balloons with toothpaste to make stress balls, put hot glue around the top of an eraser-less pencil to make an eraser, and heated beeswax and rubbed it on their sneakers to waterproof them. Another highlight of the STEM Fair was a station where students walked forward and backward in front of a motion detector and tried to match their movements to a distance-versus-time graph on a computer screen.

Ninth-grader Justin Linares was one of several students in one period who were so intent on finishing their coding program that they didn’t want to go to their next class.

“Every year it’s the same thing: ‘What do you mean time is up? What do you mean I have to go back to class?’” Mr. Goldberg said.

Justin said he liked learning about coding and may sign up for the course next year. “It seems like a pretty interesting subject,” he said.

This is the fourth year OHS has offered the Game, App Design & Coding class and the second year for the Computer Science Principles course. When current students graduate OHS, there will be approximately 500,000 coders in the United States and 1.5 million jobs in the field, he said.

“They will leave high school able to write a computer program, which pretty much guarantees them a job,” Mr. Goldberg said.

OHS students at the station with the motion detectors and distance-versus-time graphs were loud as they tried to top one another and get as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible. Junior Nolan Marx’ highest score was 96.7 percent. Unfortunately, another student topped him by 0.01 percentage points.

Nolan said the secret to his success was “trying it over and over again.”

Junior Giovanni Santucci showcased his ongoing Science Research Program project on why some people are more susceptible to multiple concussions. He is using virtual reality to find links or a relationship in how their sensory integration is different from someone who has never had a concussion before. His research subjects will be high school students.

“There have been studies that show that people who have had concussions are actually at a greater risk for multiple concussions,” Giovanni said. “Why is that? Nobody knows.”

Junior Mia Gunn, secretary of the Engineering Club, said the idea behind Hour of Code is to get each student to participate in at least one hour of coding and encourage students to study STEM fields. “This year it has blown up so much. We not only have one hour of code, we have a whole day of code,” she said.