Using Computer Science to Explore Heritage and Culture

Using Computer Science to Explore Heritage and Culture

At Rivera Early College High School, CS Teacher Melinda Zarate Sparks Student Interest to Discover Their Family Heritage

My name is Melinda Zarate, and I teach at Rivera Early College High School in Brownsville, Texas. I became interested in teaching as an adult working in a management role supporting many young adults new to the workforce. My family is full of educators, and I finally realized that teaching was my calling too!

When I began teaching, I was a business teacher and later, ended up teaching technology and computer science.

“I’m self-taught. Over the years, I taught myself in all IT applications that I know now — it’s an eternal learning experience!”

As a Hispanic woman, who has evolved into the world of IT and computer science later in life, I want to encourage and support our younger generation of hispanic males and females to discover and embrace the world of computer science too. When my students hear my story and self-taught programming knowledge, they discover abilities, talents, and possibilities that they didn’t think could be a reality for themselves.

We are a campus on the border of Mexico. Funding and technology are limited. In 2020, I had the opportunity to join the CodeHS Inspire Fellowship. With the support of the fellowship program, my district, and the CodeHS platform, I had big plans to make the world of computer science a solid reality filled with endless possibilities for my students. It was also my goal that students would develop an understanding and appreciation of their cultures and families, while applying computer science.

My students are predominantly Hispanic and most are first generation from Mexico. They are from a rich and vibrant culture with many traditions; however, many do not know their parents and grandparents nor understand the meaning of their cultural and familial traditions. This may be due to the inadequacy of record keeping in Mexico or that some family stories have not been shared.

I wanted students to use their programming skills to develop a webpage that showcases their family heritage and culture. I asked students to start a dialogue with their families by interviewing older family members about their lives. Students worked on building their webpages during their spring semester Web Design course on CodeHS.

There were over 50 students in my Web Design and IT Practicum courses who were involved in the project. It was many of my students’ first web design class and most were apprehensive about HTML and CSS. However, they have gained confidence in themselves working with CodeHS and especially working on this project!

Many of my students demonstrated exceptional creativity by using CodeHS and Canva to design elaborate family trees, insert cultural artifacts, and showcase family photos with hyperlinks. Here are some example websites created by my students.

I’m thankful to the CodeHS Inspire Fellowship for enabling my students to effectively utilize technology through their platform and learn from each other!

I teach in a predominantly Latino community and I feel that we are heading towards expanding our computer science opportunities for them little by little each year. This year we offered AP testing for Computer Science Principles and Computer Science A, as well as expanded our recruitment of new students. We are adding the Cybersecurity course next year and offering certification in Python and Java. As a TSA advisor, I am reaching out to our coding students to get them interested in becoming a member and competing in computer science events at the regional and state level.