Do you send your kids to private school? Do you believe that GA public schools lag behind in terms of delivering STEM education? Read this...
Last month, GAETF gave me the opportunity to participate in the competition as a Judge and it was a great experience for me. There were 750 projects and 1000+ students from various school districts of GA participated in the Tech Fair. Imagine a mass gathering in Macon to showcase their mobile apps, robotics, 3D modeling, Game design, Video production and many more. If you think students of GA public schools are lagging behind, think again!!
Our team judged more than 40 projects, interviewed 70 odd students with a focus on mobile apps. Solutions included school apps, 3D games, electoral college analysis, volunteer work automation, sports team collaboration, etc. Particularly, students from remote areas of GA surprised us with their innovations!
Many students were from economically backward communities and go to schools that depend on E-Rate funding programs. Some of them shared their reasons on attending the Tech Fair..
I am sick for the past 3 days.. still drove 4 hours to attend this Tech Fair.. It means a lot for me and I don't get to see so many smart students in one place.. West Georgia
We offered to develop this app as our school website was buggy and our principal needed some help... 30 miles from Athens
Very few students have smart phones in our school and I could not test my game app. Still I believe and will come back next year.. Muscogee county
I want to develop a compelling 3D game that is sticky.. Hall County
Organizers
This blog would not be complete without the special mention of the leadership, and dedicated volunteers who work for months to conduct this competition at the school, district, region and finally state finals!
In terms of planning, organizing an event, GaETF should get 9.5 out of 10..!
Judges
We had volunteers who judged various categories and they were ready for the grueling 15-minute sessions with student teams. Planning committee had worked on team folders that was so clear & concise that there was no need for explanation. Kudos to the GaETF team that prepared the judging sheets, scorecards and an awesome training folder.
Anyone interested in conducting Mobile Apps contests / hackathon can take some notes and contact GaETF for additional inputs.
I am so happy that GA is moving in the right direction with respect to STEM education and with the support of higher education institutes like @GeorgiaTech, @GeorgiaStateU, and @UniversityofGA, we are producing great talent for the nation!
Suri Anantharama is one of the founding members of TAG Government, Public Sector society and provides IT advisory / Best Practices consulting services to several local government cities / counties / schools across the country.