The Hour of Code is Coming!
Last year, code.org launched the Hour of Code, a worldwide initiative seeking to expose students to coding. The idea is not to create a world of computer scientists, but to provide a context of how computers work and how design thinking and computational tinking apply to many areas of our lives. Last year, I participated in the #HourOfCode with close to 400 students. Many went far #BeyondHourOfCode.
There are so many resources available to make participation in the Hour of Code simple to implement. Teachers should not be intimidated as the activities generally allow for students to work at their own pace. Code.org has done an amazing job of presenting activities accompanied by videos. I have found that many of my students started in class and were eager to continue working on the activities at home. In this post, I would like to share the activities that I have planned for my students this year.
Code.org is a great point of entry. You can set up a teacher account and add your students or provide a code to allow your students to enroll as a member of your class. Code.org provides a number of activities based on the Google’s blockly. Students will recognize many characters including characters from angry birds, plants vs. zombies, Elsa from Frozen, and others through the wide variety of activities. Once started, students can easily work independently with support as needed.
Codecademy focuses the teaching on hard coding. I’m always hesitent to use that term because it doesn’t have to be difficult, but hard coding is what people tend to refer to as typing code. Codecademy offers self paced instruction in so many languages. The approach is generally to give students instructions to follow and then students try what they learn in the code window right next to the instructions. When the code is compiled by hitting ‘run’ the students can immediately see whether their code was correct or needs to be fixed. Nothing better than learning some good old debugging along the way! The structure is great and learning is scaffolded beautifully. Typically, my students start with the JavaScript track and some move beyond. Last year I had several students (happened to be female students) that went so far beyond the point that I expected them to. It was really great to watch. I always have my students submit a reflection as they complete each section. I ask questions like:
What programming concepts were introduced or reviewed in this section?
What challenges did you encounter? How did you work through the challenges?
and since they had already completed the code.org activities, I would ask..
How do you find hard coding compared to the drag ‘n drop block coding?
I found it most interesting that these two girls (in particular) continually commented that they found the hard coding to be easier, make more sense, etc. This was not what I expected. I honestly do not think these two students would have gravitated to coding without this experience. Now I believe they have a genuine interest.
This year year I came across the Google | CS First program. The program is designed to fit nicely as an after school program or as a curriculum in class. I am using it with my 8th grade Game Design and Development students as one of the tracks is Game Design! The other tracks include Music and Sound, Fashion and Design, Storytelling, and a new Art track. All of the activities can be found online including videos to correspond with each activity. Typically the activities would each take about an hour and there are about 8 activities with each track. The Game Design track has students working with Scratch. You can also sign up to receive print materials including a passport for each students with stickers that they get to fill their passport as they complete the activities. They will also send headphones (on loan) for the duration of the program. I like the program so far and think it will supplement the curriculum in my class beautifully for the #HourOfCode and #BeyondHourOfCode.
What activities do you have planned for the Hour of Code? Please share!
About my class…I teach Video Game Design and Development so all of my students are exposed to Computer Science through iterative design, coding, computational thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and the many other 21st century skills that accompany coding. I believe strongly that game design is a great way to introduce students to Computer Science, but also the important idea of design teams where everyone can have an active role in the development process.
