This school year, all of the students at Jacksonville Country Day School participated in the “Hour of Code.” Organized by Code.org, the goal of this global event is to get students to spend an hour programming during Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 8-14).
The day kicked off with an assembly to get students excited about coding with a video that featured Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Will.I.Am, who said “coders are the new rock stars.” The students then engaged in coding mainly using two tutorials provided by Code.org: “Code with Anna and Elsa,” featuring the stars of Disney’s Frozen, and an “Angry Birds” tutorial.
Older students were paired with their younger “buddies” to engage in these collaborative computer-programming projects. Sixth grader Hardt said that coding “makes me more creative.” His classmate Aidan added, “It’s so awesome and easy.”
According to Code.org, computer science “helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic, and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path.” Code.org hopes to get 100 million students coding during this year’s event. “By teaching coding we are setting them up for success in the future” Christina Knodel, a computer specialist at Jacksonville Country Day, said.
