Beechwood Elementary competed in the coding challenge at Mississippi Children’s Museum

JACKSON, Miss. (VDN) – Twenty-four teams of fourth-grade students from across Mississippi competed Thursday, September 18 in the C3 Jr. Coding Challenge, hosted by C Spire at the Mississippi Children’s Museums in Jackson and Meridian. Beechwood Elementary was one of those to compete.

The challenge, part of the Mississippi Science Fest, introduces elementary students to computer programming and 21st century technology skills. Guided by C Spire mentors, teams designed obstacle courses and programmed robots to navigate them, applying critical thinking and problem-solving skills along the way.

This year’s event also featured a new tool: a C3 Jr. chatbot created by C Spire in partnership with Amazon Web Services. The chatbot provided students with event information, rule clarification and coding assistance during the competition.

Awards were presented to students who demonstrated creativity, teamwork and problem-solving. The top three teams at each location received trophies and tech-related prizes.

At the Jackson museum, Madison Crossing Elementary placed first, followed by Northwest Rankin Elementary and St. Andrew’s Lower School. At the Meridian museum, Enterprise Elementary claimed first place, with Henderson Ward Stewart Elementary in second and Lamar School in third.

Brad Carpenter, chief operating officer of C Spire, said students continue to show impressive skills in computer programming. He added that the chatbot collaboration with AWS demonstrated how technology companies can work together to positively impact education.

The Mississippi Science Fest continues through Saturday with hands-on activities, experiments and exhibits across all four LeFleur Museum District museums in Jackson. A single $10 ticket allows entry to all museums that day. MCM-Meridian will also host its fifth annual Science Saturday in conjunction with the festival.

A full schedule of events and tickets are available at www.mssciencefest.org
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