Contest merges music, coding to lure students to computer science | Education - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Arlinda Smith Broady, award-winning reporter reports, Just because your teens watch movies and play video games on their phones and would rather communicate through social media than in person, doesn’t mean they are up-to-date on work-world technology.

Photo: Atlanta Journal Constitution

With the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating that by next year there will be 1.4 million computer-science-related jobs available and only 400,000 graduates with the skills to apply for those jobs, many schools are readying the next generation to fulfill that need.
Computer science students at Paul Duke STEM High School recently showcased some new skills in a competition that teaches how to write code that makes music...

“I always get students who come in and say they don’t know anything about programming and they may be a little intimidated at first,” said Philip Peavey, digital technology teacher at Paul Duke. “But once they get going they realize that it’s something they can do … it opens their eyes to career possibilities that they maybe hadn’t thought of before.”

Computer science is the fastest-growing profession in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) but only 8 percent of STEM graduates earn a computer science degree, with a small percentage from underserved backgrounds.
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Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution