NMS Tech Integration Class Sees An Hour of Coding
Ms. Falconer's Tech Integration class engaged in "An Hour of Coding" here at NMS the past couple of weeks. This was just the beginning to celebrate Computer Science Education Week, but will continue in all three grades of her classes to include every student here at the Nichols.
Just to give you some background, here is some information from the official "Hour of Code" website:
The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 40 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104.
The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.
Anybody can host an Hour of Code anytime, but the grassroots campaign goal is for tens of millions of students to try an Hour of Code during December 7-13, in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. Is it one specific hour? No. You can do the Hour of Code anytime during this week. You're welcome to split up the Hour of Code into multiple sessions so long as your students finish the Hour of Code tutorial. Just do whatever works best for you and your students. (And if you can't do it during that week, do it the week before or after).
The Hour of Code is organized by Code.org, a public 501c3 non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. An unprecedented coalition of partners have come together to support the Hour of Code, too — including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the College Board.
The goal of the Hour of Code is not to teach anybody to become an expert computer scientist in one hour. One hour is only enough to learn that computer science is fun and creative, that it is accessible at all ages, for all students, regardless of background. The measure of success of this campaign is not in how much CS students learn - the success is reflected in broad participation across gender and ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and the resulting increase in enrollment and participation we see in CS courses at all grade levels. Millions of the participating teachers and students have decided to go beyond one hour - to learn for a whole day or a whole week or longer, and many students have decided to enroll in a whole course (or even a college major) as a result.
Our students were using programs such as Scratch and programming such fun things as Star Wars and Frozen characters.
It was an excellent experience to see our students problem-solve, critically think, collaborate, and create using technology. It is always fun to watch our students make mistakes, learn from them, and then attack problems in different ways.
Thank you, Ms. Falconer, for jumping us into this 21st Century Learning.
Check out some of the pictures of our students Coding:
