Award-Winning Computer Science Program Focusing on Problem Solving

From video games to electric vehicles and everything in between, there are many different aspects of computer science that intrigue Hendrick Hudson students. As often as he can, Thomas Yee, the computer science teacher at Hendrick Hudson High School, will launch projects that can feed those interests, allowing his students the freedom to explore the topics that matter to them.

And what interests Yee? Seeing his students prove they can create a program to solve a problem.

“I want them to learn about problem solving,” Yee said. “I want them to look at errors and ask, ‘How can I fix them? How can I debug it?’ When they face an issue with a program, I want them to learn how to work through that.”

The computer science curriculum at Hendrick Hudson High School consists of two courses, Computer Science Essentials and AP Computer Science Principles, which are taught every other school year. They are part of the school’s award-winning Project Lead the Way (PLTW) program.

Hendrick Hudson High School, which was named a PLTW Distinguished School for the seventh straight year in 2023-24, was also recently honored by the College Board. The school received an AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for expanding access to AP Computer Science Principles to young women.

“I was initially interested in computer science because I wanted to be exposed to different types of logic problems than in other classes,” senior Catherine Wright said of decision to enroll in the courses. “I thought that learning and using code would be a unique way to think and approach questions or tasks.”

Yee said the school’s computer science curriculum provides an approach that allows his students to determine whether or not they want to pursue the topic further in college. Computer Science Essentials teaches students about coding in-depth. The AP course includes some coding and an overview of computer-related topics and fields, from simply how a computer works to the importance of cyber security.

Students can earn college credit for completing the AP course and earning a strong score on the AP exam.

“I was interested in creating my own coding portfolio as well as learning more about the conceptual aspects of computers and networks,” Wright said. “An example of that was learning more about quantum computing.”

With his students showing so much interest in computer science, Yee brought a group of nine of them to Lockheed Martin in Owego, N.Y for a coding competition. Now, with a competition under their belts and their interest still piqued, Yee will host a coding competition in the school library on March 1.

“They are looking forward to it,” he said. “We had a really good experience last year.”