Today the K-3 students participated in an Hour of Code.
What is an Hour of Code? Watch the YouTube video below to learn more.
What is Computer Science?
Computer science develops students’ computational and critical thinking skills and shows them how to create, not simply use, new technologies. This fundamental knowledge is needed to prepare students for the 21st century, regardless of their ultimate field of study or occupation. (https://www.dropbox.com/s/o1mafeosi0xuwb0/What_is_CS_and_Careers.pdf )
Why is it important for students to learn about computer programming?
- Computer Science is a top paying college degree
- By 2020 there will be 1,000,000 more computer science jobs than there are students
- Without computer science not much works
- There will always be jobs for coders
- Solving problems is never boring
- Making. Really. Cool. Things!
The K/1/2/3 students were able to write their own computer programs using drag and drop programming. They learned about repeat loops, conditionals, and basic algorithms. The students were also able to see the computer code that was “under the hood” of the drag and drop commands they chose. You can try the tutorial they took part in here: http://learn.code.org/hoc/1
The students had a great time and many of them want to learn more. The tutorials at Hour of Code are available for the students to work through whenever they would like. Here is a link to another tutorial that uses the same drag and drop program they used at school today.
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tip_bar=hoc
The program is called Scratch and in this tutorial the students can learn to make an animated holiday card.
