Vestal High School students win Code Quest competition
Last month Computer Science Teacher Carol Reynolds accompanied four Vestal High School teams to Lockheed Martin in Owego to take part in the Fourth Annual Code Quest computer programming competition. They competed against other students from Corning, Johnson City, Union Endicott, Webster (NY) and even the state of Maine...Congratulations to Jacob King and Christopher Murphy for winning first place in the Advanced Division! Other Vestal High School students who participated included Hamza Aamir, Michael DiGiacomo, Kiel Donahue, Sean Kunz, Jared Miller, Logan Murdock, David Pirc, Joshua Prier and Drew Williams. Teams of two to three students worked together for two and a half hours to solve 15 problems created by Lockheed Martin information technology professionals. "Solving Code Quest problems was a great opportunity for our students to sharpen their Java programming skills and, most importantly, to learn the value of teamwork," said Ms. Reynolds.Following the competition, students had an opportunity to tour the Lockheed Martin facility and learn about helicopter manufacturing, along with why coding is such an essential skill in high demand. Lockheed Martin's chief information officer spoke at lunch, and each competitor received a Code Quest T-shirt, backpack and USB drive.The goal of Code Quest is to inspire students to consider jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, which are increasingly hard to fill. The students are excited about the prospect of competing in Code Quest again next year and appreciated the time and energy that Lockheed Martin volunteers gave to make this event a valuable experience for them.Vestal High School is one of 186 schools in New York State that teaches computer science, according to http://www.code.org/, a non-profit organization that supports K - 12 computer programming education. Vestal High School offers classes in Java and C++.