Students across the district have been celebrating "Hour of Code" this week, and there have been so many cool activities! What is Hour of Code? It's a global celebration of computer science education hosted each year in December.
There was a good mix of students who had tried coding before or were hopping into these exciting adventures on code.org for the first time.
At Franklin Elementary School, more than a dozen Accenture volunteers spent the day doing coding activities with students. Bethany Garza, an engineer at the tech company, spent one of the hours in Mrs. Shirlee Pater's 4th-grade Classroom.
Early in the "Hour of Code," it was nearly silent as these 4th graders worked through different Minecraft coding activities. That didn't last long as the energy only continued to build, and the students bubbled with excitement as they started to figure things out and advance in the lessons using coding. One 4th grader in Mrs. Pater's Class even said she liked it so much that she wanted to enter the computer science world as a career!
Not only was it fun to see the problem-solving happening in real-time, but as some students finished, they were eager to share tips and help others get to the finish line. It was a superb example of kindness and showcasing how to be a great classmate.
Bethany also brought in her very own BB-8 ( Star Wars fans know) that she built. Students took turns moving the robot around, and then she took it apart so everyone could see the computer chips inside and how it was made.