CompSci Chaos

Bennett Schweickert ’24

Lunchtime woes

Sofa Viatour ’26

LM’s Computer Science Club recently held one of its biggest events of the year, Computer Science One Day (CS1 Day). The event was held in the Down’s Gym and was led by teachers Thomas Swope, Justin Mansor, John Vaccaro, and a select group of leaders of the Computer Science Club. The goal of the event was to encourage current CS1 students to continue their studies in the rapidly expanding field of computer science.

The event featured a wide variety of activities for students to engage in, which were designed to futher expose them to endless possibilities and opportunities ofered by the feld of computer science.

The day consisted of presentations and activities led by a diverse group of professionals in the field, former students, club members, and current students involved in the computer science courses offered by LM. These speakers all demonstrated the various applications of computer science in the real world and discussed the need for continued interest in the topic.

As well as hearing from experts in the field, students were also given hands-on opportunities to experiment with technology involving computer science. Students participated in a collaborative activity designed by University of Pennsylvania’s Engineering program using microbit technology and machine learning to help students code a robot able to navigate an obstacle course. Students also attempted to complete various tasks using block coding to program drones to accomplish varied tasks that require collaborative efforts. The final task was a coding competition among all participants, where the students were split into small groups. Students received credit for completing problems when they proved the functionality of their code to any event organizer.

Along with the CS1 Day, the Computer Science Club has held various other events including Program.it and Teach Python. Program.it, an event similar to CS1 Day, was an event designed to promote computer science among underrepresented groups in LM. The event was an incredible success, receiving extensive positive feedback from its participants; 80% of students reported that they were more likely to begin studying Computer Science or take a computer science course as a result of the event.

Teach Python was an event designed to engage middle schoolers from Bala Cynwyd Middle School and Black Rock Middle School. Students were given instruction on coding in Python using Turtle, which allows students to create unique patterns using simple lines. Students were then prompted with challenge designs to code themselves and were even offered a block of time to create their own unique designs and display their creative ability through coding. Overall, the recent events have been incredible successes and students greatly improved their coding skills. We hope to see you at the next club event!

Almost every school day of the year, students at LM have an hour of free time called Lunch and Learn. During this time they can chat with other students, talk to teachers, eat lunch, participate in clubs, etc. Lunch and Learn was designed specifically to be beneficial for students’ education, but what do the students themselves think about it? On January 19, The Merionite conducted a survey to seek an answer to this question and received many responses. This is what we found out. Ironically, the lowest-rated Lunch and Learn location on campus was the cafeteria. When asked why, most students responded with the same three reasons: noise level, overcrowding, and hygiene. LM has a whopping attendance of about 1,500 students, who all use the same dining facilities at the same time. Even if all students don’t sit in the cafeteria, a large number still have to go in to pick up school lunches. The result is an extremely loud room packed to the brim with students. With so many students in one room, there is a lot of litter left behind, which raised a lot of complaints from survey takers who said they would prefer a cleaner environment.

When taking a look at the top of the list, the best-rated location was the hallways. One student describes, “The hallway is much quieter, there is more flexibility on where you sit, and there are nice teachers nearby.” About three-fourths of students who voted for this option genuinely liked this location, while others simply said there weren’t any other better options. The runners-up for best locations were classrooms and the library, both for the same reasons as the hallways.

Due to the fact that Lunch and Learn is an everyday occurrence, people develop different habits on how to spend their time. Based on the survey, 81 percent of students consistently sit with the same people and 76 percent sit in the same spot day after day. One of our final questions was, “How would you improve Lunch and Learn?”

A substantial number asked for more time to talk to teachers and eat lunch. Other suggestions included replacing the single line serving system for school lunches, adding more seats around school to combat complaints of overcrowding, sounding an announcement for the beginning of the second lunch, and placing an additional microwave to make wait time shorter. Many people also asked for restrictions on leaving campus to be lifted, the current seating arrangements to be replaced with more comforable seating, and improved school lunches. LM’s lunch situation undeniably draws a mix of emotions from the student body. It will be interesting to see how LM keeps positive aspects of Lunch and Learn while improving the negative aspects. With the population growing at LM, change will be needed soon.