Microsoft is holding Hour of Code sessions at its flagship store in Sydney as part of Computer Science Education Week.
Advertisement
While physics, chemistry, and biology are a norm at all schools, computer science is still a nascent subject. With the Minecraft tutorial we plan to deliver during the Hour of Code we aim to spark creativity in the next generation of innovators in a way that is natural, collaborative and fun.
New this year is a Minecraft-themed coding tutorial released by Microsoft in honor of this year’s Hour of Code event.
“They’re learning those critical thinking (skills) while playing a game”, Valla said of her students, “so they don’t initially recognize the amount of critical thinking they’re doing and we can get them to do a lot more because they’re so engaged thinking they’re just playing a game”. The kids will learn how to use several different computer programs.
The Skaneateles Library is slated to host its Hours of Code event from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11. This year, the campaign expects to exceed 100,000 events during the Computer Science Education Week and to continue introducing more girls and underrepresented students to this foundational 21st century field.
And in Hemet, the Western Center Academy has made coding part of its curriculum and three teachers at Alessandro High School are using Hour of Code in their advisory class. “How they are developed and what is behind it”, she said.
“Our lives revolve around computers every day: our alarm clocks, lights, telephones, televisions, cooking and households appliances”, said Copple.
Longleaf Elementary gifted teacher Ashley Barefoot said the students there will turn the Hour of Code into a Week of Code.
“We have to make kids understand that coding is not just for geniuses – everybody can learn how to code”, she told Lifehacker Australia.
According to Code.org, there are 1,052 open computing jobs in this state. On December 7th, the programmable robots Dash & Dot will be featured during an Innovation Show-and-Tell organized by the non-profit Code.org. This event, which will be held at the NASDAQ headquarters in NYC and will also feature demonstrations by Sphero and Google Cardboard, among others.
Advertisement
“They love coding and the problem-solving techniques they develop to be successful at it will take them to new levels in other STEM programs”, said Benson.
