A step into the Academies of Loudoun building at night will reveal that there are many things that go on after dark. For example, on the evening of December 8, the Academies held its first ever Computer Science Family Fun Night.

This event, which was meant to be an Hour-of-Code for young students, was held at the Academies in a rather dark setting. Elementary and middle school students came into school at around 6:30 pm to enjoy three 15-minute rotations of different computer science related activities.

          

Akshita Kaushik, a senior in the AET IT branch that came up with the idea, and Mr. Chapin hoped to promote the Academies as a potential high school choice and raise interest in the Computer Science field with this event. Mr. Chapin claimed, “At least one kid’s life was changed because of [Family Fun Night].” 

Students in VEX Robotics Club, Girls Who Code, and Computer Science Honors Society spent months organizing this event. Impressively, it was completely volunteer-led.  

   

In the event, students were able to get hands-on experience for coding different applications and were introduced to different projects that students in the Computer Science program had been working on. Activities included Scratch, OzoBots, finches, drones, microbits, and a variety of Senior Research Projects. These robots (OzoBots, finches, and drones) and miniature computers (microbits) helped students get an insight into the world of STEM.

Many people, including AET Director Craig Lewis, believe that this event was very successful. Young students were extremely happy to experiment with different engineering projects, and their excitement levels were through the roof. Students and staff members alike definitely think this event should be done again in the future!

 

written by Aesha Kapoor

edited by Keerthi Selvam and Tryphena Pilli