Circle of Nations, an inter-tribal off-reservation boarding school in Wahpeton ND, is in the process of receiving $10,000 worth of new technology after participating in Code.org’s Hour of Code.

Last December, 29 schools in North Dakota participated in the Hour of Code program, where students learn the basics of coding through programs designed by Code.org. Among the schools that have 100% participation, one is randomly selected from each state to receive $10,000 worth of technology for their school.

“They sent us an e-mail that we won, and I didn’t actually believe it to be truthful,” said Karie Trupka, Computer/Art Teacher at Circle of Nations.

Trupka said the school chose to do a student-lead project where each students selected new technology they’d like to see in the classroom from a catalog.

“The students went online shopping and screenshot the things they wanted,” Trupka said.

The biggest purchase the students chose was to replace the old computers being used at the school, she said. The computer lab will now be replaced with Mac computers and there will be more computers installed in the dorm rooms, she explained.

“Having computers that don’t freeze, that don’t need to be restarted, having computers that have enough memory to make the software work that we need to work – it will be phenomenal to keep things up to date,” Trupka said. “Our computers are 5-7 years old. There’s definitely a need for new computers.”

Circle of Nations is a boarding school, so the students are there 24/7. Over 30 different Native American tribes are represented between the school’s current 112 students, and span from 4th to 8th grade. Trupka said the students come to experience boarding school, or because of family ties. But for many of the students, life hasn’t been easy.

“The majority of the students have had a lot of trauma in their life, or they come from a poverty area,” Trupka said. “There’s a reason that they are here.”

Trupka and the other teachers have made a point to integrate computer science into the classroom, she said. The Hour of Code lasted longer than the National Computer Science week; every week, students spend an hour a day learning basic programming.

“We have students who are excelling in programming,” Trupka said, laughing as she added., “They are way faster than I am.”

Some of the methods they are currently using include making lines of binary using beads, and programming small drones to fly around the classroom. With some of the grant money they also bought some Google cardboard, to experiment with virtual reality.

Trupka send in the final grant request on Wednesday, and the shipment of new tech equipment should arrive within the week, she said.

Read more about Hour of Code here.