By Sharon Milano
The annual CodingWithKids computer science event, coordinated by 2023 Warren County Teacher of the Year and New Jersey State Teacher of the Year finalist Daryl Detrick, has returned to Warren Hills Regional High School for a seventh consecutive year. Detrick proudly supervised 40 of his high school computer science students during this one-night event as they led their planned sessions on coding, robotics and logic problems for 120 middle and elementary students in grades 3-6.
Evolution of the program
CodingWithKids evolved from an existing program called GirlsCodingWithGirls (GCWG) in which Warren Hills High School girls taught middle and elementary school girls to program and encouraged them to pursue STEM careers. GCWG was started with a National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) grant won by Warren Hills student Adesola Sanusi in 2014. Sanusi went on to graduate from Harvard University and work at Google. She has since moved to Nigeria to work in the financial sector to give back to the country her family came from.
“In the middle school years, girls incorrectly believe that they are not good at math and science; this program helps to keep them interested during those crucial years,” Detrick said.
Since the program’s inception, over 510 elementary and middle school girls put in over 5,000 hours of coding plus hundreds of additional hours on their own. Fifty-three of the program’s student mentors have pursued courses of study in STEM-related fields, some currently enjoying careers at Google, Apple and Microsoft.
“Programs like CodingWithKids and GirlsCodingWithGirls empower our students and give them the opportunity to share their passion for computer science with young students,” said Detrick. “Our high school students are great role models for the younger students. All students should have the opportunity to study computer science as it opens doors of opportunity. Our goal isn’t to create computer scientists, but to create computational thinkers. It is a skill that will help our students no matter what field they pursue.”
GCWG was the national winner of the 2018 Champions of Computer Science award from Code.org and the Computer Science Teachers Association.
An evening of CodingWithKids
As the evening began, students assembled with parents for an overview about the computer science program at Warren Hills High School. Students in grades 3 to 6 were then divided into six groups of 20. Each group was assigned to a high school student who served as their counselor. The counselor traveled with their respective groups throughout the evening while also assisting students who were presenting workshops.
Upon arriving at their designated rooms, the younger students were immediately engaged in fun, interactive activities. One session featured logical thinking puzzles that did not use computers, such as pentominoes and tangrams, while other sessions featured exercises in coding and robotics.
The “Hour of Code PB&J” session began with students instructing a human computer, “Walter,” in step-by-step instructions to build a PB&J sandwich. Walter executed commands exactly as instructed to illustrate the importance of precise directions to ensure the successful execution of a task. The human computer occasionally got a little sticky when the commands were not clearly articulated. In reality, this was a streamlined version of what desktop programs actually do.
In the robotics rooms, students participated in a workshop called “Sphero,” where the objective was to teach students how to use block code. These are preprogrammed codes that enable the younger students to drag and manipulate the movement and color of spherical objects along patterns on the floor by dragging their fingers on an iPad. The other robotic workshop was “Micro:Maqueen”, led by 12th grade student Julia Bisse, where students applied code to microbits to connect to robotic cars which can then execute various functions.
Student mentors give back to their community
When asked what motivated her to become involved in the CodingWithKids program, Bisse stated that the program launched her passion for computer science. Now she wants to give back by serving as a mentor to younger students. She first participated in GCWG as a third grader, where she met two of her best friends.
“It was very difficult at first, but I stuck with it for the next four weeks and found it to be very rewarding,” Bisse said. “I credit my dad, a software engineer, with getting me to join the program after having met Mr. Detrick.”
Bisse said she had so much fun participating in earlier years that she has returned every year since and now plans to go to college for cybersecurity.
“The program opened my eyes because I never would have thought I could do this if I didn’t see the girls who look like me and were my age doing this too,” Bisse said. Bisse repeatedly referred to GCWG as life changing and hopes to attend Howard University to continue to study computer science along with political science. She hopes to someday work for the FBI or the National Security Agency.
Another standout mentor was 12th grade student Gabby Fama, a 2022 New Jersey runner-up for the NCWIT Aspirations Award for women in computing. Fama started participating in computer science programs as a fifth grader and now helps to organize and plan CodingWith Kids, GCWG and other youth programs that the computer club CS@WH (Computer Science at Warren Hills) helps to facilitate.
Fama said that she has stuck with the program because, “I really enjoyed it as a kid. Now that I get to see some of the behind the scenes work that we’ve put in, and what we do to make it all happen, I just think it’s a great program. Carrying this on for future generations is so important to me because it really sparked my love for STEM, which I think we need to do for the future generations.”
She said that her goals include going to college to study biomedical engineering and to someday work in the medical equipment field. Her interests include possibly making prosthetics or any type of medical equipment using coding and software.
Fama went on to reflect on the advice she would offer the younger students attending the evening’s CodingWithKids event, focusing on a message of perseverance and resilience.
“When you get stuck, or you’re working on a problem, whether it’s math or science, just keep going and keep working until you get it, because subjects like these are meant to make you want to bang your head against the wall until you get the answer,” Fama said. “That’s what computer science is—it’s problem-solving and working with a partner, or trouble-shooting to try to get a result. With anything you do, whether it’s math and science, or in life in general, keep working and keep finding ways that you can make something work, and, in the end, you’ll be happy with the result.”
Pursuing social equity in STEM
Detrick has been a leader in computer science advocacy for the last 10 years and currently serves as the director of the CS4NJ Coalition (CS4NJ.org), an organization that promotes computer science for all students in New Jersey to achieve greater equity.
Detrick noted that this past year, the New Jersey Student Learning Standards were updated to require that all students in grades K-8 learn computer science and that all high schools offer computer science.
“The CodingWithKids program gives students opportunities to learn these standards, including females and minorities who are currently underrepresented in the STEM field,” Detrick said.
Detrick’s work in the field of computer science is a social justice endeavor to address inequities so that all students receive and develop computer skills to prepare them for future jobs, while also developing computational thinking skills that open doors for job opportunities in all fields.
“There is no skill I know that can take so many students from low-income to middle-income in a short period of time as computer science education,” Detrick said. “There are currently over 16,000 open computer science jobs in New Jersey and 600,000 in America that cannot be filled.”
Detrick has also been a member of the Governor’s Computer Science Advisory Board since 2018.
“We appreciate the support of Gov. Murphy and NJDOE as we try to implement quality and equitable CSforAll [computer science for all] in New Jersey,” Detrick said. “I am proud of the CS@WH program we have developed over the last 20 years that truly prepares students for life beyond Warren Hills. We are fortunate to have an amazing group of teachers, students and alumni involved, as well as the support of our administration. It is so much more than just classes. It is really a community.”
Sharon Milano is an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes. She is the president of the Franklin Lakes Education Association and an NJEA Communications Consultant. She can be reached at smilano@njea.org.