Posts tagged codeathon
Kudos to the students!
On a rainy November morning I walked into the offices of the BC Principals and Vice-Principals Association not knowing what to expect. Sure I’ve been to other codeathons, or hackathons as the events are also called, but I’d never been to an event where students were the majority of the audience.
After an introduction and brainstorming session from Brent Munro of the BC Ministry of Education, the students were off and running, looking for data and trying to wrestle their ideas into a manageable form to avoid being overwhelmed by possibilities.
After searching the DataBC website for data and a bit of Google-Fu, they found the data and the tools and set to the real work of turning data into information.
And they did great! They crafted a scholarship finder to make it easier to figure out how to ease post-secondary school debt, they mapped school locations and SkyTrain crime statistics to name two projects.
Was the day a success? I’d say so. The students were able to see what data could do for themselves, their classmates and their parents.
And for some, it was their first view into a world that perhaps they would have otherwise never seen. And isn’t that what learning is all about? I think so.
Well done everyone. Thanks to the BC Principals and Vice-Principals Association and the Ministry of Education for pulling the event together.
David Wrate
Citizen Engagement Director
Province of British Columbia
BC Student Voice was in action at British Columbia’s first student codeathon on Nov. 7, 2011. The Ministry of Education and the BC Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Association co-hosted the event, which brought together students with the purpose of promoting awareness of open data, information that can be extracted from raw data, and creation of new applications from the data.
Pioneering into the world of coding opened a new world to me, that of discovering data and learning to use it efficiently in ways that could make a difference to my community.
Creating Solutions with Open Data at the Student Voice Codeathon
The Ministry of Education and the BC Principals and Vice-Principals Association teamed up to host the first ever BC student Codeathon on November 7th 2011 at the BC Principals and Vice Principals Office in Vancouver. The purpose of the event was to gain and collect data from different places and put them all together in a useful and organized way to help other students, teachers and our fellow citizens in making their everyday lives just a bit easier.
There are a vast majority of issues and problems which we as students want to influence which are meant to be heard by others. Throughout the day we tackled a small portion of these problems with teams and created four (4) different solutions to our daily road blocks. These projects were mostly focused on the High School Student life which included a School and Transit Map answering the question – how far do I have to carry my text books each morning and afternoon? A scholarship finder, helping the average Grade 12 student find more specific post-secondary entrance scholarships, bursaries and applications. A School, Crime and Transit map to keep us safe by informing us of which Vancouver transit stops are plagued by crime and finally the Map Your School project, helping new students, student-teachers, substitute teachers and parents navigate through a new unfamiliar school.
Throughout the day, I learned that the opportunities of open data and the opportunities which you can create are endless. However, we must not wait to perfect our project, but to rather start small, share your ideas, blog about them, tweet about them and gain ideas and insights from others. Surely, if you need help, there is someone out there who has the ability to help you move your project forward. We all have learned so much from the experience and we hope to share our thoughts and ideas within our schools and districts in the near future.
- Som Ghosh, Grade 12, Hugh McRoberts Secondary, Richmond, BC
BC Student Voice Codeathon
The First BC Student Voice Codeathon
November 7, 2011
“Coding, what’s that?” I thought when I was invited to the first local Student Codeathon. I arrived at the BC Principals and Vice Principals office in Vancouver on Monday morning ready to learn something new. Armed with only my laptop and my creativity, I quickly realized that those were the only things I needed to embark on a day full of brainstorming, researching, innovating and accomplishing.
Exploring the world of coding, learning to harness raw data and then transforming it into something practical like a website or mobile application was something I never thought I could do until I attended the Student Codeathon!
With a group of other students, we collaborated to create an accessible, user-friendly way to help high school students apply for entrance scholarships into local post secondary institutions. This project was like hitting two birds with one stone for a grade 12 student such as myself! Not only were we creating a solution to a problem relevant to others my age, a difficulty finding postsecondary information quickly and in one place, but I was also able to learn more about the amazing educational opportunities offered right here close to home.
During my few hours at the Student Codeathon, we were we able to start our scholarship project which could potentially help hundreds of students continue their education, and we also met amazing people like the Minister George Abbot, members of the Ministry of Education and members of the Ministry of Labour, with whom we shared our ideas. We were also mentored by experienced programmers and software developers themselves, such as Luke Closs and David Eaves who started the Recollect application right here in Vancouver!
Pioneering into the world of coding opened a new world to me, that of discovering data and learning to use it efficiently in ways that could make a difference to my community.
- Dayah Johal, Grade 12, Hugh McRoberts Secondary, Richmond
The BC Principals’ and Vice Principals’ Student Codathon was probably one of the most interesting and benificial conferences I have yet been to. What I learned in one day at the Student Codathon, might have taken me days to learn by myself. What I really liked was that, they would give you a presentation on where to find some data, and then let you start a mini project using that data, and whenever you were stuck or needed help, they would assist you in trying to resolving the issue. Overall, the Codeathon was very organized, well carried out and also the presence of many great knowledgeable people made the Codeathon even more interesting and beneficial.
