Philly School District Makes Push To Prepare Students For Digital Job Market
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Computer science takes center stage, as the School District of Philadelphia looks to prepare its students for the digital job market.
The Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences offers students state of the art coding and robotics programs.
"This is all about children engaging with technology, in order to learn skills of the 21st century," said Philadelphia School District Superintendent Dr. William Hite.
To mark Computer Science Education Week, Hite announced on Tuesday he wants to expand that computer program, to make sure students at all their schools have access to those resources, too.
#ComputerScienceEducation takes center stage, as @PHLschools looks to prepare its students for the digital job market @KYWNewsradio pic.twitter.com/6qDbbkbXiQ
— Justin Udo (@JustinUdo) December 5, 2017
"We're using it as a means to engage children in very different types of skills, and we all know they are going to need these skills in order to be successful as they move forward," said Hite.
Coding spheres and a virtual reality lab are just part of the computer science curriculum offered to students like eighth-grader Krista Camba.
"I'm in robotics, so it helped me in robotics to move the robot and make it do the things I want it to do," she said.
Krista says these tools are just what she needs to get a jump-start on her future.
"I want to be some type of engineer, and engineers are like involved in programming, designing, developing, so I believe coding would be one of those things that would help me do that," she said.
During Computer Science Education Week, Krista and other students at Feltonville are taking part in an hour of code, where they'll learn code with students all over the world.