Saint Eunan’s College hosted a hugely successful Code Week campaign this year after having been selected as one of only two secondary schools in the country to receive funding and support from Google.
This funding allowed them to invest in the hardware, software and promotional material to promote coding and computer science to their own students and to those in the local primary schools and community.
This funding helps secure this promotion not only for the duration of Code Week but also into the future through their new Transition Year STEAM Academy and their existing Computer Club.
Some of the activities that took place this year in the College included;
Members of their Computer Club welcomed students from Scoil Cholmcille to their computer suites where they got hands-on experience with coding and electronics and had an opportunity to write their own python code to control mini robots.
The students then visited Scoil Mhuire gan Smal where the girls got to program robots and electronics and got to explore some of the same coding languages that tech giants such as Google use on a daily basis.
Tech Hero Interviews! Students visited and video interviewed some of their local Tech Heroes including Catherine McFadden from Pramerica Systems Ireland, Paul McNulty from 3D Issue and Damien Blake from Google Ireland.
These interviews are being made available on sainteunans.com soon and will serve to inspire and inform students about the many varying and exciting technology jobs that are out there waiting on them.
Raspberry Pi and Robotic workshops were held in the College during lunchtimes, again hosted by students themselves, where everybody was invited to come along and experiment with coding and controlling some robots and electronics.
In a reversal of traditional roles – some teaching staff were schooled by second years on the intricacies of coding iterations!
The Technology Department within the College founded it’s new 3D Printing Club this week. Mr. Sean McGinley’s initiative opened the door to all students to try their hand at designing and printing their own models using their newly acquired 3D printers – along the way producing our fancy new ‘Code Week’ bracelets and keyrings!
Lunchtime coding competitions organised by their Transition Year students tested both new and experienced coders in a LightBot challenge – won eventually by students Henry Casey and Gareth Neely who earned prestigious gifts of a Raspberry Pi and the coveted ‘STEAM Academy’ t-shirt and mugs.
The ‘Crack the Code’ daily challenges were won by Michael Rosenberg (third year) and Harshit Panchal (first year) – these students were drawn out of all the correct entries who correctly deciphered some tricky encrypted messages!
A spokesperson for St. Eunan’s College says: “The College would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to their own students who helped make Code Week such a huge success – David Doggett, James Byrne, Leonardo Camacho, Sean Miguel Murray, Jack Brady, Dallan Davis, Luis Simiao, Luke McKeever, Scott Thompson, Oisin O’Brien and Mark Houston.
“These students showed a maturity beyond their years and were excellent ambassadors for our school in the wider community.
“Big thanks goes also to their sponsor Google without whom they would not have been able to reach as many students as they did these last few weeks.
“Finally we also want to acknowledge the support of our local ICT industry and its employees (including our past pupils) who give so generously of their time, advice and resources to help us every week as we continue our journey in educating and promoting ICT skills to all students.”
