By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist
At publication of this column, Brown County Schools will have just completed a week of “cool coding” thanks to our friends at the Brown County Redevelopment Commission. This week was led by a group from the Eleven Fifty Academy and provided education to our students and our community about the importance of computer coding.
The Brown County RDC sponsored this program so that our students could be exposed to skills that are fundamental to engagement in the 21st century workforce. By being exposed to this content, we hope to inspire students and increase their enthusiasm about engagement in computer science as a potential occupation.
Simply, coding is the process of telling a computer what you want it to do. Code powers our entire technological world. When you think about the expanse of coding, it translates in nearly everything we touch. From your smartphone to the computer that runs your car to something simple like your dishwasher, nearly everything that plugs in anymore requires code to run.
And while coding has been around since the inception of the computer, the workforce is needing more and more coders to fill positions that are available in the computer science industry. It is estimated that within the next 10 years, there will be millions of jobs that require a foundation of coding. Unfortunately, of great concern is that we don’t have enough trained individuals to fill those positions.
We are also being told by the industry leaders with whom we are engaging through the Regional Opportunity Initiative that there are coding jobs available now for students on the spectrum of degrees. Students who have a high school diploma, two-year associate degree, four-year bachelor’s degree and beyond are all needed in this workforce. A career in coding is so exciting because there are high-paying jobs that need to be filled now in any college or career path that our students decide to take.
We are thrilled to be able to offer our students a sophisticated pathway of computer science coursework in Brown County Schools. Brown County High School is one of the few in our region that are able to offer Advanced Placement (AP) computer science.
Only 48 schools in Indiana offered this course in 2015-16. Additionally, fewer than half of all high schools in the United States offer any computer science courses at all. We are proud to be ahead of that statistic; however, we have more work to do to get our students prepared for the workforce that is their future.
An exciting initiative that Brown County Schools will also offer is a new club called Girls Who Code. The mission of this club is to close the gender gap in technology. Currently, there are fewer than 1 in 5 computer science graduates who are women, and the outlook is getting worse. In 1995, 37 percent of computer science graduates were women, and today it is 24 percent.
For girls who participate in Girls Who Code, the data shows that 65 percent indicate they are considering a major or minor in computer science because of being involved in the club. This new club meets on Mondays from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m. for girls in Grades 5 through 12 in the Brown County Junior High School computer lab.
We intend to keep the great momentum that is in place after the week of “cool coding” in Brown County and will continue to offer exciting opportunities for students to engage in this exciting work.
We are seeking local coders and/or individuals engaged in computer science work to speak with our students and engage with them about this career. If you are interested in speaking and/or working with our students, please contact me.
Laura Hammack is superintendent of Brown County schools. She can be reached at [email protected] or 812-988-6601.
