5,043,468 Results In 0.77 seconds? That's Cool...I Guess by Anthony

5,043,468 Results In 0.77 seconds? That's Cool...I Guess by Anthony - September 2017 Scholarship Essay

Our story begins in the fall of my sophomore year of high school. At approximately 11:00 AM I report to my third block class: Computer Science H. When I made my schedule the previous year, I couldn’t have cared less about what science it was; it could have been political science for all I care. The only reason I took this elective was because, as a sophomore, I had this notion that being ranked first in my class trumped all other goals, and the ‘H’ ensured me a significant amount of points towards my rank if I did well. Little did I know that this class would determine the field I wanted to major in.
My ability to enjoy the class was hindered by my failure to see practical applications of my acquired knowledge. The teacher showed us how to make programs that could add numbers, print boxes using characters, and generate random numbers. However, I kept reminding myself I can add in my head, draw boxes with my hand, and pick a random number without the aid of a computer program. I had trouble putting my learning to good use.
At the same time, my youngest brother, then an eight-year-old, was struggling with simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in his math class. Worse, he was spending his free time watching hockey games instead of sharpening his skills. If only there is a way to make him practice math without him realizing he is doing so…a way to may him think he is playing hockey while doing math….
A figurative light bulb illuminated above my head and I ran upstairs, impatiently tapped my desk while my coding application loaded, and began clacking away at the keyboard designing a personalized learning experience.
The program was quite simple, involving four “game types”: blocking as a goalie, passing the puck, shooting the puck, and getting the puck in a face-off. Each “game type” presented math questions that corresponded to a different operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). There were no graphics, it was all text output. For example, if the question was answered correctly in the goalie game type, the screen would output: “Oh the goalie missed it! That’s a point!”
Upon finishing, I plopped my younger brother in his chair and explained to him this “new game I downloaded”. I was absolutely stunned; he would play it for hours at a time. I later made revisions to include a high score counter, a place to input team names, a place to input player names, and more responses to incorrect/correct answers.
After that program, I began to see how practical computer science was. Perhaps there is another child out there who is struggling in math and could learn it easily with the aid of a Minecraft math game catered specifically to him or her. Or, maybe a person can learn spelling while the computer makes it feel like they are in the Star Wars universe. Beyond just learning, there is so much more that computer scientists can do to make the experience of every unique individual enjoyable.
Google can fetch 5,043,468 Results In 0.77 seconds with programming, but I can teach my brother math with programming. I am now a senior and am currently taking Computer Science AP. However, the only way I could fit this class into my schedule was if I took it at a rival high school, hence making the awkward situation where I leave my normal high school every day after 3rd block to attend 4th block at another high school. This has never been done before in my township, but for furthering my computer science education, it is worth it. The single event described above motivates me to pioneer this cross-high school education and is why I am planning to pursue a career in computer science. If I had never taken that elective, my education would have taken a very different course.