Bayshore Middle School Outreach!

In honor of Computer Science Education Week and The Hour of Code, MU Computer Science & Software Engineering students and faculty look forward each year to community outreach – we are excited about giving young students the opportunity to experience the fun, pride and sense of accomplishment provided by computing! In fact, instead of waiting until the official December CSEdWeek as we’ve done the past two years, this year we kicked things off early in November with a return visit to The Bayshore Middle School in Middletown Twp.

What a varied group! Monmouth students, from freshmen through graduate school, were anxious to visit with Mrs. Donna Strobel, 6th-8th grade Computer Teacher, and the school’s Tech Team. Students were given an overview of why we feel being able to code is so important, and we shared information about the strong need for coders at the national level.

Freshman Tyler Roach shared how he became involved in coding through virtual reality, which led to him founding a virtual and augmented reality software company during his senior year in high school - http://www.virtualinsynergy.com/

Senior Taylor Klodowski was up next – Taylor first met Bayshore students during our 2014 visit and returned afterward to speak with students while preparing her Honors Thesis. Many of those students were present and asked Taylor to share results of her thesis with the group.

We made sure to save plenty of time for hands-on activity. Middle School and University students spread across the room for demonstrations of software prepared by Bayshore students, and for opportunities to try on the VR goggles Tyler brought with him.

Our visit was over too quickly, but with promises for us to return to Bayshore soon and for the students to come visit us at Monmouth. In the upcoming weeks we have plans to visit other area schools in support of Hour of Code and CS Education week.