CSEdWeek was amazing!
The week of December 7–13 was Computer Science Education Week. During the week the Hour of Code initiative was held. Its mission is simple; to get schools, teachers and parents to introduce students to computer science for one hour. This one hour can truly have a lasting impact by serving as a great stepping stone that sparks children’s interest in the subject.
Over 180,000 Hour of Code events were held around the world, where tens of millions of children were introduced to Computer Science and coding.
Box Island: One Hour Coding
We just released an Hour of Code version of Box Island last November that was formally featured by code.org as a mobile partner tutorial for the events this year.
During the CSEd Week, kids from all over the world used Box Island to simulate over 4.2 million lines of code!
The version consists of 20 levels and can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Play Store.
White House Tech Jam
We were extremely honored to have been invited to participate in the White House’s first ever Computer Science Tech Jam.
The event combined leading educators, students and industry professionals together into teams to “generate new ways to bring fun and engaging computer science experiences, coding, and computational thinking into K-6 classrooms”.
The day was a major success and after intense caffeine filled hours the teams presented their ideas to each other as well as distinguished speakers including U.S. CTO Megan Smith, Deputy Advisor to the President for Education Roberto Rodriguez, Delegated Deputy Secretary of Education John King, Director for Education Technology at the Department of Education Richard Culatta, and Joan Ferrini- Mundy and Erwin Gianchandani of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
We’re incredibly impressed with this administrations determination to push Computer Science education forward in America, culminating last week by President Obama signing the “Every Student Succeeds” act which puts Computer Science on a level playing field with other academic subjects.
For more information on the administrations activities during CSEd Week check out their official blog.
Hour of Code kick-off event
The Hour of Code took over Times Square this week as the NASDAQ Stock Market hosted its worldwide kick-off event!
The event was a lot of fun and just after the opening remarks by code.org CEO Hadi Partovi a busy day with a kids panel, innovation show-and-tell and of course coding took place!
Check out this video by Microsoft to get a feel for the atmosphere at the event!
School visits
Radiant Games visited 6 schools in Reykjavik, New York and Washington D.C during CSEd Week! We were absolutely blown away by the enthusiasm of the children most of whom had never done any coding at all.
Below you can see some of our favorite photos from the visits!
Special thanks to our friends at QuizUp for joining us at the Crocheron School in Queens, New York where the two Icelandic start-ups introduced Computer Science and the world of coding to over 90 students!
— Written by Haukur Logason,
on behalf of the Radiant Games team
