NBOE Hosts Girls Who Code Computer Science Showcase featuring 300 Students from 25 schools

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[Newark, New Jersey, December 12, 2019] On Thursday, December 12th beginning at 9:00AM, the Newark Board of Education in partnership with Girls Who Code and NJIT hosted our inaugural “Girls Who Code Computer Science Showcase” featuring over 300 sixth through tenth grade students from 25 of our schools.

The event occurring during Computer Science Education Week (December 9 - 15) featured a coding-based project competition among students participating in after-school clubs to present their “Impact Projects” to the competition’s judges. Each club’s Impact Project was developed this year to solve problems in their local community by applying coding knowledge and creative computational thinking to a range of product designs - from innovative phone apps to web sites and robotics.

The showcase included a recorded welcome message from First Lady Tammy Murphy and opening remarks from Superintendent of Schools Roger León, NJIT President Joel Bloom, and Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter. Additionally, distinguished representatives from Apple, Microsoft, Verizon, Panasonic, Prudential, NJIT, the Urban League of Essex County, William Paterson University, Montclair University, Kean University, Girls Who Code, and the Newark Board of Education served as volunteer judges to review the students’ projects.

The projects were evaluated based on a rubric reviewing three core components: 1) Design and Aesthetics, 2) Purpose, and 3) Social Impact & Project Differentiation. First, second, and third place were awarded to the following schools for each category as well as an overall first, second, and third place.