2018 Hour of Code

It was exciting to add Friends School Mullica Hill to the worldwide map of schools participating in Computer Science Education Week/Hour of Code initiative to devote at least one hour of time programming! We had 100% participation from our student population. We even had some faculty members and parents pledge.

Many of the Hour of Code activities incorporate principles of computer science through step-by-step instructions in a game. This method allows students to independently control the pace of learning while sharing the experience with their peers. Our kindergarteners and first graders tested out Lightbot. At its essence, programming is simply the way people tell a computer what to do using instructions that the computer understands. They also worked cooperatively to program our Dash robot through controls on the iPad app.

Second through eighth graders participated in this year’s featured Hour of Code Dance Party activity. Dance Party is a sandboxed learning environment where a finite amount of tools prevents those new to computer science from becoming overwhelmed. It also uses a concept called “block programming” in which drag-and-drop commands are written in plain English instead of the computer’s language. I relate this to students as, ‘Imagine Teacher Sara was introducing you to graphing … in French!’ Removing the computer science language in the beginning removes the barriers to entry.

We hope to have more offerings and invitations for staff and family members to be a part of the excitement next year, and we will continue to share all of the “aha” moments our K-8 experienced in their Hour of Code.

Links to images and videos:

Hour of Code:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DocI1MOuCrM&feature=youtu.be

Completed tutorial by 5th grader Noel

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yKWgjN3FHUP2marq-E2AKyphdhZD5AGS/view?usp=sharing

4th grade students moving and grooving

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OySsnr1P8_AY-At9tYtstfA90DUlZC9k

1st Grader Sophia was not a fan of Lightbot at first, but after unlocking the first 2 challenges really liked it! My most favorite HOC moment!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I9GSXDAf8NwTcp-1LzAk7ipT977aDPQm

8th grade coders:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oGL4kDh0NziQ2zBet3sayZVgDMAStYZr

2nd grade cooperative Dash (robot) programming