Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/1077063
GOOGLING EXCELLENCE The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) Night for Teaching Excellence brought together members of the business, education and technology communities to highlight the great computer science work that is happening in local schools. Latin is a leader in the local and national computer science (CS) community in terms of integrating CS into other disciplines, and Latin students and teachers were invited to share their recent work at the event at Google Chicago headquarters in December. Isabel Gortner '22, Sabrina Hayes '22 and Avi Vadali '22 presented the app they created while studying World War II in their eighth grade American Studies class with history and social studies teacher Rob Wellen. Each student selected and researched a topic from WWII and then used the JavaScript programming language to build an app displaying the information they collected. The apps also included built-in surveys to record the responses of users, which highlighted how data was collected and stored. Asher Patent '24 and Uma Vadali '24 also were invited to share the project they developed as part of their study of Syrian refugees in Jeff Nichols' Global Perspectives class. It takes users on the journey of stories of individual Syrian refugees and the choices they face, as well as the realities of the refugee experience. Patent and Vadali programmed the story in the Scratch programming language and connected it to a Makey Makey device, which triggers code based on touch. They connected their Makey to a passport and medicine, which then prompts an audio recording that describes why these objects are essential to refugees fleeing Syria. Event attendees were inspired to see how Latin students are making learning an interactive and shareable experience. Avi Vadali '22, Sabrina Hayes '22, and Isabel Gortner '22 presented their projects at the CSTA Night for Teaching Excellence event held at Google Chicago headquarters. Middle school computer science teacher Bobby Oommen was awarded the CSTA/Infosys Foundation USA Teaching Excellence award this year. 7 LATIN MAGAZINE ยป WINTER 2019