As part of the 10th Hour of Code, Code.org partnered with DonorsChoose to award $1 million to U.S. schools to help more students get access to computer science. Two Nebraska schools were included in the 102 schools that were awarded the CS Leaders Prize of $10,000.
McCool Junction Jr/Sr High School and Norris Middle School of Omaha Public Schools were chosen for their commitment to providing computer science education for their students.
See the complete list of winners at https://code.org/prize.
These schools are all adding a new computer science course in the 2023–2024 school year. In addition to the $10,000 awarded to the school to fund a project of the school’s creation through DonorsChoose, the implementing teacher in each winning school will receive a no-cost scholarship to attend Code.org’s Professional Learning Program.
Michael Mansour of Norris in OPS said this year they introduced some new courses in programming and computer science. “This grant will allow us to take things to the next level,” Mansour said. “The application we submitted focused on expanding our computer science offerings to more students and equipping them with tools and resources to excel. We will be offering the full, code.org CS Discoveries course and adding more to the programming courses we have.”
The first round of purchases made by Norris have been Microbits and accessories for them, a 3D printer, and some additional items for computer science projects for students. See some of the Norris students in action on this page they made for CSEdWeek.
Deann Nicolaus of McCool Junction was the other winning teacher.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to expand your CS professional development, the AIR@NE grant for K-8 teachers will be starting a fifth cohort in Summer 2023. Applications will open soon so watch https://scimath.unl.edu/airne for updates. Selected teachers can earn $1,500 toward robotics for their classroom or after-school club.