CIS Hosts Showcase for Middle, High School Students’ Computer Projects

Thirty-one students from 17 middle and high schools, primarily in Western New York, entered computer programs, computer games, and robotics projects they recently created in the virtual CS4HS Showcase and Competition hosted by Buffalo State College June 5.

The ninth annual competition, spearheaded by faculty within the Computer Information Systems (CIS) Department, included a video showcase of the students’ work, an introduction of their mentors, and an awards ceremony for the top projects. This year, 11 CIS faculty members and one engineering technology professor judged the entries.

“Although New York State recently approved a computer science certification for K–12 teachers, students were able to complete their projects with guidance from teachers from a variety of disciplines, including math and science,” said Neal Mazur, associate professor and chair of CIS. “Many of these teachers have attended CS4HS workshops at Buffalo State in the past.”

CS4HS is an annual grant program sponsored by Google promoting computer science education worldwide. Its goal is to connect educators to the skills and resources they need to teach computer science and computational thinking concepts in fun and relevant ways.

“Our team at Buffalo State has been honored to present a CS4HS program to more than 250 Western New York middle and high school teachers for eight summers,” Mazur said, adding that the CS4HS Student Showcase and Competition is the indirect result of that ongoing training.

“The teachers who attend integrate more computer science concepts into their classes and often start computer science clubs at their schools,” he said.