Sycamore High School embraces tech for fall courses

SYCAMORE – Sycamore High School students will have the opportunity to gain real-world experience in computer technology and mathematics next year with the addition of new courses in the fall.

Annette Keca and Adam Bezinovich will continue and introduce tech-focused classes in the fall 2019 semester. Both said because of the popularity of pilot classes in coding and sports stats in the 2018-19 school year, they decided to continue and expand their programs.

“It’s about students thinking critically,” said Keca, an English teacher and technology coordinator at Sycamore High School. “My goal is to get them to have an understanding of the process of learning as we work in a project-based world.”

Keca will continue her Coding One class, which was a pilot program in the 2018-19 school year, and will incorporate Coding Two in the fall.

Students in the pilot course used the coding language Python to create projects such as choose-your-own-adventure games and music with the program EarSketch.

The class had free rein on what kind of projects to do in order to reflect a real-life work environment, Keca said.

“When you go to work, your boss may not tell you what they want, so you get to come up with it,” Keca said.

Coding Two is the result of popular demand, as the first quickly became booked for the 2019 fall semester, Keca said. In the second edition, students will build on their knowledge of Python and create modifications for the computer game Minecraft using JavaScript, another coding language popularly used for video games and websites.

Students will then take their creations and see how they work in the video game universe, making adjustments as needed, Keca said.

“When I first heard about this, I was a bit skeptical, but I asked the kids and they were so excited,” Keca said. “It’s the most wonderful thing to see them want to share what they have created.”

Students also will have the opportunity to try something new in the field of mathematics, and how it applies to life outside of school.

Bezinovich, a math teacher at Sycamore High, said he wants to continue his pilot Sports Statistics class – introduced in the 2018 fall semester – because word of mouth from students who took the class spread throughout the school. The program went from 15 students enrolled in the 2018 fall semester to 32 in the 2019 fall semester.

In Sports Statistics, students will use statistics to compare professional and high school sports teams and run simulations. Bezinovich said he wanted to change the way mathematics is taught and give students the opportunity to leave high school with experience in a growing field.

“I thought to myself, ‘This would be a perfect class I would want tot take in high school,’ “ Bezinovich said. “This is a newer field, and there are opportunities available.”