Every year, students in schools around the world take part in Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code. Participation in this fantastic initiative has continued to grow every year since its official inception and we expect this year to the biggest one yet! This year’s CS Ed Week begins on Monday (Dec. 3) and runs through the following Sunday (Dec. 9) with countless events scheduled at schools and in afterschool STEM clubs during that time. Since it began in 2009, millions of children and adults have taken part in coding projects and challenges around the world. As the importance of coding literacy continues to grow, we’re hopeful that more students than ever get to take part in an Hour of Code event this year (even if it is just one hour)! Here’s some helpful inspiration and ideas for making the Hour of Code and Computer Science Education Week as a whole something kids will remember.
Bringing the Hour of Code to Any Class
Besides its usefulness to students as they embark towards a digital future, developing coding skills offers them a way to expand their thinking and the ways in which they solve problems. Nowadays, coding isn’t something that needs to be limited to STEM or technology classes, either. It can actually be taught and applied in just about any subject. Teachers and students don’t have to be expert programmers to take part in the Hour of Code and they don’t even need sophisticated technology to make their experiences worthwhile. Some of the EdTech designed to teach coding to kids at a young age is easy to afford and even easier to integrate in any learning environment. Plus, there are so many resources available on sites like Code.org that educators can use to get started. And, like we said before, these activities are not limited to any one school subject, but, rather, can truly encompass them all!
Despite the importance of helping students develop programming skills, many schools have just one hour to try to jam it in because of all the other requirements they have to teach. The good news is that many of the activities available online are designed to be able to be completed in that time—hence the term ‘Hour of Code.’ Whether teachers have coding tools in their classrooms already or need activities that are completely supported online, there are options for everyone. Many of the activities can be found on Code.org and include things like their new Dance Party or Minecraft tutorials for students. They could also bring coding into math classes and challenge kids to use programming logic to solve puzzles or create patterns. For students who have had coding experiences before, they could have the chance to create their own app, which also shows them how valuable programming skills are in today’s world since so much of our lives revolve around mobile applications.
Even if the classroom does not have computers (or does not have enough for every student), plenty of CS Ed Week activities can be done without a screen. Kids can read stories in certain books that are designed for this specific purpose and learn some of the fundamentals of computer science along the way. There are also ways in which students can find any object or group of objects around them and work together to debug them. Debugging is a huge component of programming and beginning to think like a computer scientist goes hand in hand with learning how to debug. The best way, however, to bring the Hour of Code into the classroom if you ask us is with robots. No matter the age or ability of level of students, there is something for them. Check out our store for something for everybody and keep reading for more suggestions on how to make CS Ed Week great!
Even Those New to Coding Can Try an Hour of Code
Part of the reason that the Hour of Code and Computer Science Education Week in general are so appealing is that they each focus on just a short amount of time. There is not tons of pressure on educators to create months worth of lessons and content for their students and certainly not the added stress of making sure they all pass a test on the material. Since the Hour of Code is literally just a bunch of 1-hour lessons, this should help a bit in easing the nerves of teachers trying it for the first time—even if they are new to computer science in general. In the last section, we talked about how computer science can be practiced in classrooms of all subjects and the same is true with students of all ages. The Hour of Code is designed to celebrate all things computer science and programming—even the simplest of concepts using the simplest of technologies. And, if a coding tool is easy enough for a first or second grader to use, then chances are, it’s easy enough for a teacher new to coding to try, too!
Among some of the ways for teachers to get comfortable with coding is to do a little bit of research. Again, Code.org has a bunch of helpful resources for teachers and librarians that can ease them into the activities of CS Ed Week. Here is one of their most popular and helpful resources—a video on how to run an Hour of Code. After that, teachers could prepare better for their Hour of Code experiences by doing a bit of research on the tech tools they will be using during Computer Science Education Week. Many EdTech companies have created teacher resources to complement their technology and some even have professional development courses that educators can participate in. Two of the best companies that provide educator materials to help with getting started with coding are Wonder Workshop and Ozobot. We would suggest checking out their free resources and, if you are using a different set of EdTech tools (you probably are), do a bit of research on their site and see what kind of helpful content they offer!
Rather than focusing so intently on making sure students leave CS Ed Week with advanced coding knowledge should not be the point of the activities—especially for beginners. Incorporating play into coding activities is a great way to engage students while keeping things light. Once again, there are plenty of games teachers can create for their students to complete while they learn coding. This is a popular way to use Ozobot, but other tech tools that can teach coding through gameplay include the Edison Robot, mBot, Sphero line, and Cubetto to name a few. Then, there’s always the option of going unplugged. The Edison Robot, for example, allows students to learn about programming using a set of custom barcodes, which they can scan with the robot to program it in a number of different ways. We could go on for a while with viable examples of beginner-level Hour of Code ideas, but hope this is enough to get you started!
Unlocking the 21st Century through the Hour of Code
One hour of exposure to programming may not seem like a lot, but it can certainly make a difference in the futures of today’s students. Of course, it would be ideal if kids were able to experience an hour of coding every week or every month, but, if they have to settle for one hour during CS Ed Week, then that’s still better than nothing. So far, millions of students have been able to experience computer programming thanks to the Hour of Code initiative and they often leave CS Ed Week determined to take their coding experiences to the next level whenever possible. The best thing about teaching coding is that it’s a skill that can be learned using the techniques they have developed in the mainstream classroom since the start of their education—most importantly problem solving. While the benefits of building coding skills can have long-lasting ramifications for students, Computer Science Education Week is also a time during which they can begin to realize that programming is incredibly accessible and definitely fun as well.
Through Hour of Code activities, students are able to design, create, and express themselves while solving problems in creative ways—a few hallmarks of life in the 21st century economy. The more students are able to practice coding, the better they will become at it. Coding is a skill that can be developed over time and, as kids learn the foundational skills, they are able to move on to more complex areas of programming. When a child who is only in kindergarten or first grade, for example, sees how easily they can control something like a robot using code blocks, it goes a long way in unlocking their future curiosity, including the desire to do this in a more advanced way. So much of the world today is computer science-based meaning that STEM professionals are constantly working with different inputs to generate different outputs. This shows kids that they have the ability to engage with computers (or tablets) and interactively control the actions of a robot or another codable device, ultimately leading many of them to formulate more creative ideas for how they can control the world around them using technology.
The opportunities students are given during CS Ed Week provide them with a platform to share their skills and interests with others. There are so many projects that can be done using coding, including building websites, to show off their work. Ideally, as students continue developing their programming skills in elementary and middle school, they will be ready to take on a challenge like this by the time they’re in high school, learning the nuances of more advanced coding along the way. Perhaps most importantly, coding during CS Ed Week is known to bring students together—not just with their classmates but with kids around the world. By sharing their projects online, they can gain an even better sense of what it is like in the 21st century world—working with people from all corners of the Earth and collaborating to build something that’s truly powerful!
Launching Students’ Futures with the Hour of Code
Many people, including parents and children, see coding as a skill that kids may need to know in the future. The good news is that more and more people are acknowledging the importance of coding, but the bad news is that they’re seeing it as something that’s off in the distance. The truth, however, is that coding is a skill that students need to learn now. It’s becoming something almost as fundamental to their futures as reading and writing. And, the longer students have to wait before they can try coding, the further behind their counterparts they will be. Coding is something that is used in so many career fields today. We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again. That number is only expected to grow over the next 10 or 15 years. Plus, when students learn coding during CS Ed Week activities or at any point during the year, they’re also developing the life skills that come with it.
Hour of Code activities can start as early as kindergarten if teachers are willing to give young students the chance to learn something new. And, of course, they can continue up through high school. Many students also like the idea of working on a progressive project during coding days, adding in new elements of computer science to an existing project once they learn the skills. When it comes down to it, Computer Science Education Week is all about laying the foundation. That foundation is a critical first step in helping kids develop their coding skills in an environment where there is not any pressure. They’re not being graded on this work and that is something that helps them become more free to experiment and more willing to make mistakes. There are so many things that can be accomplished with coding and trying and failing at one approach just opens the door to another method of problem solving while also allowing kids to experience coding from multiple points of view.
Once students have an established coding foundation, which is generally some form of block coding, they can move on to typed coding. Typed coding can be used in a few different coding languages, perhaps the most notable of which is JavaScript. Rather than using the pre-created blocks to build programs that are a bit more simplified, students can actually type commands into a programming field and create programs based on the values they supply. When using typed coding, however, it gets much more complex when more variables are introduced, but, when students are first starting out, it’s a lot more simplified. Tools like Let’s Start Coding and Cue are great introductory technologies to expose students to typed coding and then they can eventually move up to using more complex tools and languages, like Python, for example. It’s a lot more challenging, but, with a strong foundation built from previous coding experiences, students are more equipped to take on these kinds of challenges.
However Brief, the Hour of Code is Very Beneficial
There’s no predetermined amount of time and practice that it takes for students to become good at coding. The more experience they can get with programming, however, the better. On the flip side of that, no matter how brief their coding experiences are, they will still be beneficial in some way. Though many schools will just take one hour to code during CS Ed Week, students are likely to remember that hour-long experience for a while. Sometimes, all it takes is one hour to inspire them, teach them new ways of thinking, and get them excited about being a programmer. No matter where kids are in the world, the resources they have, or the other curricular requirements their teachers have to cover, we sincerely hope that every student will get the chance to code for just one hour this week. The movement is growing and the benefits are expanding all the time.
The best coding experiences combine tools like robotics kits with tablets or computers so that kids can create code on the device and control the robot. We understand, however, that not every school can provide the computers or tablets, but there are programs through big names, like Microsoft, for example, through which teachers can borrow technology for Hour of Code events. Companies like this understand that technology and coding are going to be the future for a huge chunk of today’s students and have done a lot to help provide them with the most relevant learning experiences. However they get to experience coding, once they do, students tend to want to do it more regularly. Thankfully, there are afterschool camps and programs in many communities that allow them to do just that. And, if not, perhaps somebody at your school would be willing to start a club to allow kids to keep coding. Fundraising could be done to acquire some coding solutions or you could always apply for a grant—like our technology grant for teachers.
Ideally, an hour of coding every week—rather than every year—would be perfect for students. In many schools where this is not possible, teachers could easily encourage parents of their students to look for STEM programs within their community. We can’t stress enough that the way for students to not only become better at coding, but to become more comfortable with it, is to practice over and over. This is how they will learn about different languages, like starting with Blockly and then progressing to Scratch, JavaScript, and Python, for example. It’s also how they will begin learning about different coding concepts, like variables and loops. Kids today learn fast—especially when technology and tangible results are involved. This year, besides hoping for record numbers of participation in Computer Science Education Week, we’d also like for Hour of Code initiatives to continue throughout the rest of the school year, through the summer, and right up into next year’s event! Good luck. What will you create?
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