Kentucky students visit Seattle, year 2

LCHS AP CS students visit Seattle, WA

: TEALS Lee County High School AP CS Class from Beattyville, Ky visit Seattle, WA

On Tuesday April 29, 2014, 7 Lee County High School students from Beattyville, KY joined over 1,000 Puget Sound high school students at the Microsoft corporate headquarters in Redmond, WA for what could be the largest high school coding event… ever! These students represent the impact of the Microsoft sponsored TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools) program in the region. LCHS is one of 4 schools being taught remotely this year, but was the only non-Puget Sound school in attendance for the event.

A visit with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sparks some thought around what each student can give to their community, today.

Visiting Facebook

Their trip to Seattle included visits with Facebook and Google, which provided a venue for these students to learn more about the varied and exciting college and career paths in computer science. There were presentations, demos, 1:1 and group activities, which included building a turtle box and a flappy bird adaptation. They went head to head with other students for a chance to win an XBOX One.

A common sentiment from what they learned on this trip.

LCHS TEALS AP class visits Google

“Computer Science is not just programming, it’s much more.”

Among the exciting computer science related activities they were able to experience, there was also time to visit some popular Seattle sites such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Pike Place Market, the gum wall and the Freemont Troll. When asked what they liked best about the trip:

“The food! There was so much of it and it was delicious.”

Akhtar Badshah, Sr. Director Microsoft Community Affairs

Akhtar Badshah, Sr Director Microsoft Community Affairs met with Justin Austin, Senior at Lee County High School at the Microsoft event. Akhtar wanted to personally congratulate Justin on his success with the TEALS AP class and his acceptance to University of Pennsylvania next fall. Justin recently spoke out about his personal experience and impact with TEALS to Senator McConnell during the Senator’s visit to LCHS this spring.

Justin participating in the Touch Develop part of the Microsoft application developer day hosted on the main Microsoft campus and open to Puget Sound TEALS participants

“This program allows students with an interest in technology to learn the content, connect with current experts in the industry, and pursue their dreams…thank you to everyone who has played a part in bringing this program to our school.”

“I encourage any student with even a remote interest in computing to take one of these classes.”

Justin wants to study artificial intelligence or cryptography. He thanks TEALS volunteer and AP CS teacher for LCHS, Dan Goldin, Data Scientist at TripleLift for his help with his college applications.

TEALS is a grassroots program that recruits, trains, mentors and places high-tech professionals into high school computer science classes in a team teaching model with in-service teachers. Kevin Wang, founder of TEALS, is a former high school computer science teacher and software engineer at Microsoft. Kevin received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley and his graduate degree in education from Harvard.

Audrey Sniezek climbing in the Red River Gorge, photo by Daniil Magdalen

TEALS found a place in Lee County High School thanks to a current Microsoft employee and TEALS volunteer who enjoys spending time rock climbing in the region. As a professional rock climber, she has travelled all over the globe to climb but considers the Red River Gorge some of the best sandstone climbing in the world.

TEALS was responsible for $10,200 in employee matching donations to Lee County High School in 2012-2013. Microsoft matches employee volunteer time with $17 per hour up to $15k a year. Lee County High School used that money to send the TEALS remote learning pilot, Introduction to Computer Science, students to Seattle for a job shadow and Microsoft visit. This year’s trip was similarly funded for the remote teaching pilot of AP Computer Science A.

LCHS TEALS pilot Intro to CS visit Seattle 2013

LCHS now offers both Introduction to Computer Science and AP Computer Science A. 6 new Kentucky High Schools will be offering one of these classes in the next school year. Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA) is in talks for how to offer this curriculum in every High School in Kentucky State.

Visit: www.tealsk12.org to learn more.

All photos, unless otherwise stated, copyright Audrey Sniezek. To view more photos go here.