Hour of Code is coming soon- taking place December 7-13, 2015. Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. This is a worldwide event open to all ages.
There are a couple of ways you and your kids can participate:
1) You can attend an event in your local area– many of which are taking place at libraries and schools. To find an event in your area, click here.
2) You can also participate in Hour of Code in your own home. It’s FREE and all of the materials you need are provided online. The activities are self-guided and no experience is necessary– perfect for young children or adults with no coding expertise.
Code with your kids!
Last year my daughter and I did the “Code with Anna and Elsa” (i.e. “Frozen”) activity which had us working through 20 puzzles. We were asked to write programs that would allow Anna and Elsa to create snowflakes and patterns by ice skating. The software experience was graphical, using drag and drop blocks, similar to Scratch.
In addition to “Code with Anna and Elsa” (Ages 8+), this year they’ve added “Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code” where you learn to program droids and create your own Star Wars game (Ages 6+) and “Minecraft Hour of Code” (Ages 6+) where you use blocks of code to take Steve or Alex on an adventure through this Minecraft world.
My daughter, now 10 years, chose the Star Wars activity. She thought it was fun and enjoyed making her own game in the last exercise. This a great activity to do with your kids. What I like about these programs is that you can create a few lines of code and then run the program to see if the computer does what you expect it to do. In some cases it didn’t for us, so we went back and made changes.
If you want to take part in Hour of Code, you can view all the tutorials here. As a bonus, when you complete your hour, you can print a personalized Certificate of Completion. A nice reward!
About Code.org: 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.
