In honor of Computer Science Education Week (December 6-12), the Western Mass and Greater Boston chapters invited educators from across the state to join the first-ever MA Teacher Hackathon. Attendees spent the day developing coding skills by building a project in response to one of four UN Sustainability goals: zero hunger, good health and well-being, reduced inequalities, and climate action.
The virtual event kicked off with the opportunity to learn a new coding tool:
  • Scratch Jr
  • Microsoft MakeCode for Microbit
  • Scratch
  • Microsoft MakeCode Arcade
  • App Inventor
  • Code.org App Lab
  • Microsoft Minecraft Education
  • p5.js
  • iRobot Education
After a workshop introducing the tool, teachers worked in groups to choose one of the UN goals and code a project that could help solve the problem identified in the goal. You can find resources used in the Hackathon and see teachers' final projects on this Padlet. For more information on what a hackathon is, and how to run your own student hackathon, check out the How to Host a Hackathon slide deck.