Middle School Students Participate in First Ever Hack-athon

Middle school students at Plainview-Old Bethpage School District recently participated in the District’s first-ever Hack-athon. Hosted by the organization, We Connect the Dots, the Hack-athon treated Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School and H.B. Mattlin Middle School students to an exciting day of learning, technology engagement, webpage development, social justice and public speaking. Students in grades 5-8 learned the basics of webpage design using the platform Square Space as part of the District’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) initiative.

John F. Kennedy High School student-volunteers from the Science Honor Society and coding classes served as ambassadors for the day. The high school students helped with troubleshooting issues the younger students encountered and served as role models. Newly-issued Chromebooks allowed the students to choose individual experiences that they find most interesting. The variety of activities included using mind-mapping (a diagram used to visually organize information) to introduce themselves to their teammates, constructing towers using toothpicks and marshmallows to nurture problem-solving skills and researching a social cause and creating a solution for that social problem on a website.

Photo 1: Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School and H.B. Mattlin Middle School students recently participated in the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District’s first-ever Hack-athon. In conjunction with the District’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) initiative, the event aimed to help students develop important career-related skills for the 21st century.

Photo 2: Students in grades 5-8 from Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School and H.B. Mattlin Middle School recently participated in a Hack-athon, aimed to encourage digital literacy, collaboration, entrepreneurship, leadership, communication and problem-solving.

Photo 3: Students from Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School and H.B. Mattlin Middle School learned the basics of website development during the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District’s first-ever Hack-athon. Students participated in such activities as using mind-mapping (a diagram used to visually organize information) to introduce themselves to their teammates, constructing towers using toothpicks and marshmallows to nurture problem-solving skills and researching a social cause and creating a solution for that social problem on a website.