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News Releases » Fifth Annual MPUSD Hackathon Hosted by Seaside High School

Fifth Annual MPUSD Hackathon Hosted by Seaside High School

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 7, 2022


Contact: 

Marci McFadden, Chief of Communications & Engagement

831-706-6971

 

Fifth Annual MPUSD Hackathon

Hosted by Seaside High School

Media Invited to Cover

 

Seaside, CA - Approximately 18 teams of four students from middle and high schools across the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District will compete in the fifth annual MPUSD Hackathon on Wednesday, April 13, 2022 from 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. at Seaside High School located at 2200 Noche Buena in Seaside, California.

 

The competition will take place in the school’s new MakerSpace in the middle of campus. For those new to hackathons, student programmers gather together for a short period of time to collaborate on a project. Participants work rapidly to achieve a computer programming task. In this event, MPUSD students will be tasked to design and build their own app. No prior experience is needed.

 

“Computer science has a stronghold at Seaside High and we are extremely proud of our program and the work we have done to date. This year student participants will benefit from a number of Seaside High alumni who are now majoring in computer science or already working in the technology industry,” said Assistant Principal and Hackathon Coordinator Tessa Brown. Brown has been instrumental when she was a teacher and academic lead at Seaside High to expand and enhance the school’s computer science program.

 

Earlier this year, Seaside High earned the College Board’s AP® Computer Science Female Diversity Award for Expanding Young Women’s Access to AP Computer Science Principles. The school is one of only 760 schools in the country to be recognized for achieving this important honor in the AP CSP category. The school also received a Champions of Computer Science Award in 2018 from the Computer Science Teachers Association and code.org.

 

Computer Science Education Statistics

Source: code.org/promote/stats

 

  • Just half (51%) of all high schools offer computer science.
  • 90% of parents want their child to study computer science.
  • 67% of all new jobs in STEM are in computing.
  • 11% of STEM bachelor’s degrees are in computer science.
  • Students enjoy computer science and the arts the most (54% enjoy computer science and engineering)
  • Research shows, students who take AP computer science principles are 12% more likely to enroll in college, and students who take any AP computer science source are 17% more likely to attend college.
  • Women who try AP computer science in high school are 10 times more likely to major in it, and Black and Latinx students are seven times more likely.
  • A computer science major can earn 40% more than the college average.
  • Computing jobs are the #1 source of new wates in the United States; there are 500,000 current job openings.

 

Agenda


  • 8:00- 8:30 a.m. Registration, breakfast, technical mentors assigned
  • 8:30 - 8:45 a.m. Introductions and logistics
  • 8:45 - 9:30 a.m. Design plan and programming apps
  • 9:30 - 9:40 a.m. Break and snacks
  • 9:45 - 11:15 a.m. Programming apps
  • 11:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Scavenger Hunt Activity
  • 12 :00 - 12:30 p.m. Lunch
  • 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Create pitch presentations
  • 1:30 - 2:15 p.m. Teams present to judges
  • 2:15 - 2:45 p.m. Judges confer/ photos/ participation certificates
  • 2:45 - 3:00 p.m. Awards for middle school and high school divisions

 

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