School Board recognizes National Computer Science Week
The Fairfax County School board recognizes the annual National Computer Science Education Week during the week of Dec. 5-11 to interest students across FCPS in the field of computer science.
December 12, 2022
The week of Dec. 5 is known as National Computer Science Education Week (CsEdWeek) across the nation. The purpose of this week is to encourage and teach students about the field of computer science and do a deeper dive into the basics.
Schools throughout Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), ranging from grades K-12, participate in various activities related to the field of computer science. The main activity, however, is Hour of Code, an interactive one-hour lesson that teaches students a basic level understanding of computer science topics.
This week helps inspire students about computer science but also gives students an opportunity to explore. Furthermore, CsEdWeek promotes equity and allows young students a chance to gain an interest in the field.
CsEdWeek began in 2009 and was launched by the Association of Computing Machinery in conjunction with many large corporations. Now, it has become one of the largest educational campaigns.
Throughout FCPS, the integration of the many principles of computer science has been underway throughout classrooms to encourage students to go above and beyond in preparation for potential future careers.
![Student outreach representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) visit Jefferson to talk about career paths involving STEM in the CIA and student opportunities. “[Another CIA representative] invited me to join her because this is a STEM school and both of my degrees are in computer science and systems engineering. If any questions about CIA fields [arise] that contain those sciences, I could answer them,” CIA officer Michelle said.](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/cia-600x380.png)
![I had three team members working on [the finance tracker]. It creates a pie chart to show you your expenses and where you should cut down on costs. We also had a [tool] to recommend stocks to invest in, and an AI chatbot to ask [additional questions] about finances, freshman Kamel Elshaer said.](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/430737706_1197841344513170_8186491334261173802_n-600x400.jpg)
![Running for over 34 years, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation has awarded a total of $73,800,000 in scholarships to students around the nation. “It was pretty cool [to receive the scholarship.],” senior Brian Zhou said. “Its a great honor to be one of the few from TJ.”](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-03-at-4.35.08-PM-600x337.png)
