Core Critical! Walnut Grove's AWS Pathway

Walnut Grove High School launches new Amazon AWS Cloud Computing Pathway, giving students valuable, high paying job skills used in every industry.
by Brayden Downey

Walnut Grove high school, like many other schools, offers CTAE Pathways. Recently, Walnut Grove has begun to offer an Amazon Web Services Pathway. The pathway is geared towards giving students foundational knowledge about cloud computing. 

Mrs. Rutledge, the teacher of the AWS pathway stated, “Many students are discouraged to take the class because they feel that they aren't good with computers or that they aren't smart enough to be a programmer.” She further explained that her class could be quite the opposite. “Many students think that they are going to be coding, but in reality, the course isn't coding. Instead, it’s actually just a class with a lot of vocabulary,” revealed Mrs. Rutledge. Upon a class wide survey, the common consensus was that the work is fairly easy, and as long as students read the directions, they’re setting themselves up to make a good grade. 

The students taking Cloud Computing have learned about Machine Learning through looking at AI language models such as ChatGTP from OpenAI. This allowed them to learn how to apply artificial intelligence with web servers to load balance the traffic on them more efficiently. 

Students in the course have also been able to get experience with services like S3 instances or buckets which are a fundamentally simple but effective way to store your data, EC2 containers which act as the machine your programs run on, and Data Lakes which store data of relational and  non-relational subjects. 

The outlook for the course seems to be exceedingly good with ninety-two percent of students taking the course expressing interest in getting their AWS certification. Students with this certification have a highly employable skill that is able to be applied in literally every industry that uses a computer. Amazon's AWS aims to provide on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments through a pay-as-you-go method. Oftentimes, clients will use this in combination with auto-scaling, so the company or project can grow as it needs. In Amazon's description, “AWS is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adapted cloud platform. Millions of customers trust AWS to power their infrastructure and applications, organizations of every type and size are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster. ”
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Walnut Grove's new pathway gives students a skill that they can bring to any field or industry that uses a computer. Examples include: machines that can gather data for optimization of crop growth in agriculture, tracking trucks for logistics companies, scheduling of client meetings for businesses, monitoring product availability in stores to know when restocking is needed, and many more. This gives students a better opportunity to leave WGHS enrolled, enlisted, or employed.

With jobs in technology becoming more common and in demand, students have better opportunities to apply skills they've learned in school out in the real world. CTAE courses offered by your school can give you hands-on experience with job skills needed around you, and all students are encouraged to take advantage of the resources available to them.

images courtesy of Amazon AWS