School children had a chance to meet experts from Mozilla, Raspberry Pi, NESTA and many more innovative computing companies at a University of Brighton “#HackShop”.
More than 100 students from secondary schools across Brighton and Hove attended the event on Friday 15 February at the School of Education. The event was jointly organised by the university’s School of Education, Computing at School, (the lead body for teachers of computer science in schools) and DigiMaka, a Brighton-based social enterprise for computer science education.
The pupils worked with experts from across the computing industry including NESTA, Apps for Good Computing at School, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, The Guardian, the global news agency Reuters and the Department for Education.
Chris Sweeney, from the School of Education, said “the aim of #HackShop was to have a one-day event where pupils from Brighton and Hove schools could work collaboratively on a computer-based project that enhanced the pupils’ computer science education. It proved to be both a creative and experimental process in which they gained invaluable inter-personal skills. Overall, it was a fun day with plenty of opportunities to learn and work with like-minded people, including computing professionals.”
"I thought the day was a great introduction to the team work and problem-solving skills required for software development. The chance to interact with professional developers was invaluable and has really got my students thinking about their future computing careers. It was fantastic listening to them enthusiastically recount their experiences on the way home. Smiles all round!"
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