Fact Sheet
SPARK! Hackathon - February 2020
The Spark Hackathon mission is to get high schoolers throughout the region connected to industry experts and other students who are passionate about changing the world through technology. Saturday is an opportunity to learn or hone tech skills through workshops at the “learnathon”. The rest of the hackathon is spent working in self-selected teams to solve real-world problems presented by the sponsors.
77 students from 14 high schools from the local region and beyond participated in the 5th annual Spark Hackathon on February 1 & 2, 2020. This included 7 student organizers, 14 students volunteering their time as workshop facilitators and mentors. We also rely on adult volunteers who offer their time facilitating workshops, presenting problem statements and mentoring during the hackathon. This year we had 15 mentors representing 12 organizations.
The Spark Hackathon mission is to get high schoolers throughout the region connected to industry experts and other students who are passionate about changing the world through technology. Saturday is an opportunity to learn or hone tech skills through workshops at the “learnathon”. The rest of the hackathon is spent working in self-selected teams to solve real-world problems presented by the sponsors.
77 students from 14 high schools from the local region and beyond participated in the 5th annual Spark Hackathon on February 1 & 2, 2020. This included 7 student organizers, 14 students volunteering their time as workshop facilitators and mentors. We also rely on adult volunteers who offer their time facilitating workshops, presenting problem statements and mentoring during the hackathon. This year we had 15 mentors representing 12 organizations.
CS Institute - Summer 2020
The CS Institute is a collaboration between the Spark CS Program at St. Anne's-Belfield School, UVA School of Education and UVA Department of Computer Science. This year Charlottesville City Schools and Computers4Kids also joined the partnership as we ran the new Charlottesville Computer Science Community (CCSC) cohort in concert with CS Institute. The purpose of these experiences is to help K-12 educators from all disciplines learn about computer science and find ways to incorporate it into their teaching. This year we took the CS Institute virtual while keeping it free.
55 educators representing over 12 different public school districts, private schools, and after school programs joined the 3rd annual CS Institute and the first annual CCSC Cohort. We also recruited special guests to provide hands-on activities and a variety of CS and equity teaching strategies including Sarah FitzHenry (K-8 Librarian at STAB), Jo Crowder (After School teacher, ACPS), Jessa Campbell (Elementary school teacher, ACPS), and Jean Weller (Educational Technology Specialist in the Office of STEM & Innovation, VDoE).
The CS Institute is a collaboration between the Spark CS Program at St. Anne's-Belfield School, UVA School of Education and UVA Department of Computer Science. This year Charlottesville City Schools and Computers4Kids also joined the partnership as we ran the new Charlottesville Computer Science Community (CCSC) cohort in concert with CS Institute. The purpose of these experiences is to help K-12 educators from all disciplines learn about computer science and find ways to incorporate it into their teaching. This year we took the CS Institute virtual while keeping it free.
55 educators representing over 12 different public school districts, private schools, and after school programs joined the 3rd annual CS Institute and the first annual CCSC Cohort. We also recruited special guests to provide hands-on activities and a variety of CS and equity teaching strategies including Sarah FitzHenry (K-8 Librarian at STAB), Jo Crowder (After School teacher, ACPS), Jessa Campbell (Elementary school teacher, ACPS), and Jean Weller (Educational Technology Specialist in the Office of STEM & Innovation, VDoE).
Summer SPARK! - Summer 2020
We started offering Tech Camp @ STAB in 2015 and while it had many innovative features, it was built on the traditional model of summer camp. As we considered broadening our impact in the local community and providing vital educational resources, we decided to build on the SPARK! programs we’ve started and grow them outward. In 2018, we launched the Summer SPARK! program with a mission to make computer science accessible to middle and high school students in and around Charlottesville.
This summer, the program became virtual and FREE! We offered 3 weeks of content: Web Design, Art of Code and Game Design. Each week, we explored the theme through interactive challenges, video tutorials, livestreams, and learning from experts in the field:
Bio-Med Tech-Girls
23 young women from all over the U.S. joined the 7th annual Bio-Med Tech-Girls online! This program is a collaboration between the UVA Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), St. Anne's-Belfield School and Charlottesville Women in Tech. This year the week was filled with guest speakers, hands-on activities and a design challenge focused on the Go Viral Project developed by Dr. Jeff Saucerman and Dr. Shayn Peirce-Cottler from UVA BME.
We started offering Tech Camp @ STAB in 2015 and while it had many innovative features, it was built on the traditional model of summer camp. As we considered broadening our impact in the local community and providing vital educational resources, we decided to build on the SPARK! programs we’ve started and grow them outward. In 2018, we launched the Summer SPARK! program with a mission to make computer science accessible to middle and high school students in and around Charlottesville.
This summer, the program became virtual and FREE! We offered 3 weeks of content: Web Design, Art of Code and Game Design. Each week, we explored the theme through interactive challenges, video tutorials, livestreams, and learning from experts in the field:
- 20 high school student volunteers were cabin leaders and created and edited the video tutorials and challenges. Because of their work, we were able to offer Intro, Intermediate and Advanced tracks to campers for all 3 weeks.
- Over 180 campers registered across the 3 weeks of camp. They come from 35+ schools including ones located in NJ, MD, TX, Spain, Morocco and Haiti!
- Each week we had around 100 active campers
- Campers submitted over 600 pieces of original work to the gallery
- 40% female / 60% male
- 42% non-white (20% Black, 6% Hispanic, 16% Asian) / 58% white
Bio-Med Tech-Girls
23 young women from all over the U.S. joined the 7th annual Bio-Med Tech-Girls online! This program is a collaboration between the UVA Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), St. Anne's-Belfield School and Charlottesville Women in Tech. This year the week was filled with guest speakers, hands-on activities and a design challenge focused on the Go Viral Project developed by Dr. Jeff Saucerman and Dr. Shayn Peirce-Cottler from UVA BME.
