#DanceParty Hackathon for #CSEdWeek

December 10, 2018
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Dance party is the theme for Code.org's Hour of Code activities during this year's National Computer Science Education Week (12/3 - 9, 2019). Coders are able to select from 32 hit songs by society's most popular artists -- Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Outkast, to name just a few. The coding challenge is to use the programming application called Scratch to code a sprite (character) dancing to the song.

Even with 32 singers to choose from, there was no doubt about who is the most popular of all at the STEM Academy of Boyle Heights. This high school is friendly with will.i.am, the rapper who is a member of the dance-pop and alternative hip-hop band, The Black Eyed Peas. will.i.am grew up in Boyle Heights and gives back to the community through his i.am.angel Foundation.

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STEM Academy students in Mr. Magallon's class working hard.

The STEM Academy of Boyle Heights is just one of the schools and education programs linked to i.am.angel Foundation. The high school's incredible track record in robotics -- it is the Los Angeles Regional Winner for the 2018 FIRST Robotics Championship -- comes from the dedication of teachers Leo Magallo, Israel Hernandez, and Dora Marquez, and the vision of community volunteer, Oscar Cerȯn, an engineer at Boeing. Principal Adriana Trejo is a strong supporter of the area's enthusiastic and growing coding community. She was recently recognized as a Latinas in STEM Honoree.

will's song "I Want to Move It" is catchy with a good beat, and the students once again demonstrated their smooth moves by animating a dance in just one hour of code and eating sandwiches provided by Oscar Salinas, a program manager at will's foundation. The STEM Academy of Boyle Heights knows that where there's a will, there's a way.

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R to L: Volunteer Oscar Ceron (Boeing), Ms. Marquez (Engineering Teacher), Mr. Magallon (AP Computer Science Teacher), Ms. Trejo (Principal), Thelma (CSU Los Angeles), MESA representative (CSU Los Angeles).

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Students tackle coding problems together.

Published on December 10th, 2018

Last updated on April 13th, 2021


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