CS Sparks in a new initiative brought to the School by Catherine Mooney and Brett Becker, modelled on the very successful Maths Sparks. The programme ran over 4 Friday workshops this November and saw 35 transition year girls from 3 (opens in a new window)DEIS schools visit CS. The focus differed each week; the first week was an introduction to programming a micro:bit with Microsoft's Stephen Howell, the second week was focused on Kinect2Scratch, week 3 was conducted by Henry McLoughlin and focused on games and puzzles and week 4 was programming LEGO Mindstorms EV3s with Ph.D. student Evan O'Keeffe. It was facilitated by Áine Murphy from UCD Access and Lifelong Learning and supported by the School of Computer Science and Microsoft. Much of the programme was run by 20 enthusiastic and passionate CS students who volunteered their time and did a wonderful job.
CS Sparks ended on a high with a graduation event in O'Brien Centre for Science for the TY students, their parents/guardians, CS Sparks volunteers and staff involved with the programme. Each of the girls was awarded a CS Sparks certificate by Joe Carthy. The was a real sense of achievement at the graduation which brought the four weeks of commitment and teamwork to a nice close. A huge well done is due to everyone involved in CS Sparks. We look forward to seeing the programme evolve over the next few years!
Check out a (opens in a new window)CS Sparks video
"What is Computer Science?" View a CS Sparks PowerPoint presentation
2017-12-19