On Monday, December 7th the Hour of Code was in full force at Burlington High School. The day began first period when 20 of Mr. Zeigler’s Geometry students came to the Help Desk to embark on their first Hour of Code experience. A few hours later, the Hour of Code continued when math teachers Ms. Sheehy and Ms. McAuliffe, along with computer science teacher Ms. Bednarcik, brought their students to the Help Desk/library to particpate in learning to code. Once the students arrived, they were given a link to a digital flyer which gave them direct access to the MineCraft, Star Wars, Frozen, and Lightbot Hour of Code tutorials. Advanced students, and those looking for more challenging coding activities, were encouraged to explore the Beyond an Hour section of the code.org website. These tutorials exposed students to Ruby, Python, Java Script and more programming lanaguages.

Most students who participated today selected the Stars Wars and Frozen tutorials and (not surprisingly) many students were able to complete more than one coding activity. The majority of students found the tutorials challenging, yet fun. In the post Hour of Code survey, most students indicated they are more motivated to explore computer programming further as a result of today’s activities. When asked what they liked most about the Hour of Code students shared the following:

“Creating a game and having people play it. As well as learning what goes into coding.”

“My favorite thing about participating in the hour of code is an unlimited feeling of creativity.”

“it challenged me to think even though im already in computer science.”

“I got to learn about code and how to do it and I got to try new techniques I was not familiar with”

“Learning how to code and learning how to use the different commands.”

When students were asked if they would recommend Hour of Code to other students they said:

“Yes, it was very fun and interesting. It gives students a time to see what coding is and see how it works.”

“Yes because it is fun and can lead to job opportunities.”

“Yes because it was fun and a good learning experience.”

“Yes, because those who are interested in programming can use these skills, and those who might not have been interested in coding can have this experience.”

It was rewarding to see so many students engaged in the problem solving and critical thinking aspects of coding and today was only the start! Teachers will be participating in Hour of Code all week and we are encouraging school-wide participation this coming Friday. We will share more Hour of Code updates via Burlington Public Schools Twitter, Instagram, and blogs throughout the entire week so stay tuned and keep coding!