Introducing the 2016 LearnServe Innovation Award Winners
How do you teach coding without a computer?
Madison Than began with what seems like a very straightforward goal: teach young Asian immigrants how to code. She realized many face linguistic and cultural barriers; coding would give them the tools to make them competitive in the fast-moving tech economy.
Madison herself is the child of immigrants from Vietnam. She forged a partnership with Asian American Lead (a youth leadership program), collaborated closely with mentors, and identified the teaching platform that would serve as the ideal teaching tool.
There was only one problem. She didn’t have sufficient computers to teach them on.
Madison had chosen to teach her students using a program developed at MIT called Scratch, which treats coding like a puzzle. Explained Madison, “Different coding commands are written digital puzzle pieces, or ‘blocks’ that clip together on the screen. This relates coding, an abstract concept, to something as tangible and familiar as a puzzle.”
Madison took the program’s innovation one step further. She turned the ‘blocks’ from Scratch into physical puzzle pieces made from recycled cardboard. (Indeed, her prototype was built from the cover of an empty pizza box!)
Her students were able to ‘compile’ commands with their physical cardboard code and take turns entering it into the few computers available at her workshops, where they would see their commands executed.
Cardboard Coders was born.
For her innovations in technology and education, Madison was selected the region-wide winner of the 2016 LearnServe Innovation Award.
Madison’s Cardboard Coders represents one of the 52 student teams led by LearnServe Fellows from across the DC Metro area who pitched their social venture ideas at the 2016 LearnServe Panels and Venture Fair on Thursday, April 21 at the Maret School.
Innovation like hers was certainly not in short supply that night — in a LearnServe first, one of our judging categories saw a three-way tie for first place! Winners of the 2016 Innovation Awards received a laptop donated by Microsoft, along with volunteer consultations from professionals at Deloitte, ICF International, M&T Bank, and Social Driver.
MEET THE WINNERS
Innovation Award | Winner, All Schools
Madison Than, Cardboard Coders
Georgetown Day School
Madison understands the language and cultural barriers that exist for Asian immigrant youth – a reason why some lag behind in academics and other skills that they will need to be successful. In order to help young Asian immigrants gain valuable skills and introduce them to careers in computers and technology, Cardboard Coders teaches basic coding skills using recycled cardboard pieces. These puzzle pieces can be translated into code and used to create commands when entered into a computer.
DC | Winner, DC Public and Charter Schools Category
Sharnaye Raiford, A Little More Love
Paul Public Charter School
Sharnaye recalls her own experience growing up as the child of an incarcerated parent. “This led my down a road of depression, self harm, acting out in school, and keeping myself in solitude,” she explains. A Little More Love strives to create expression spaces for high school students in the District of Columbia who, like her, are children of incarcerated parents. Her venture will provide students with “expression spaces,” using music, art, writing, and gardening as tools to promote positive self expression in high schoolers.
MD | Winner, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County Public Schools
Aryana Dadpay, Buses For JROTC Cadets
Rockville High School
Aryana is a dedicated cadet in the NJROTC, despite the fact that her school does not offer the program. She, along with classmates from Rockville High, is cross-enrolled in a unit hosted by Gaithersburg High School. This poses a logistical challenge for students: without transportation provided by the school, students must rely on family to get them from training at Gaithersburg back to Rockville in time for classes. Consequently, participation in the program from Rockville has been quite low. Her venture will reach out to her school and county officials to advocate for a bus to transport students to their training class. She anticipates this will decrease barriers and increase enrollment in the program.
MD | Winner, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County Public Schools
Cambridge Jones, The Carter Foundation
Central High School
MD | Winner, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County Public Schools
Natalya Nicholas, Feminism For All
Parkdale High School
Feminism: It’s still a divisive word, but Natalya thinks that equality shouldn’t be seen as controversial. She plans to work with 4th and 5th graders, demonstrating how attitudes like sexism, racism, and ableism impact people around them every day, and how to combat these attitudes in order to create a more just and equitable society.
VA | Winner, Fairfax County Public Schools
Binqi Chen and Alex Lin, Capital Teen Scientists In Action
Annandale HS and Richard Montgomery HS
While local high schools offer science classes, there is little opportunity for most students to delve deeper and acquire the technical skills they will need to pursue a career in science, particularly the laboratory sciences. Binqi and Alex are partnering with local universities to make their laboratory spaces available to low-middle income high school students who wish to study science and develop the skills that will jump-start their careers.
IND | Winner, Independent Schools
Sara Karim, VaccinAsia
National Cathedral School
While attending a summer program on science and policy, Sara learned a frightening fact: one in five children under five years old dies from preventable pneumonia in Southeast Asia. VaccinAsia seeks to prevent child deaths from pneumonia in Southeast Asia by spreading awareness to families and healthcare providers about the necessity of vaccination and by facilitating access to these vaccines. VaccinAsia has created an online platform to share resources on vaccination in multiple languages, raised funds to offset the cost of vaccination of low income families in Southeast Asia, and laid the groundwork for partnerships with universities and non-profits in the region.