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Hour of Code in Science Class

The week before Xmas is always a stressful time in the classroom.  This year we actually gave a benchmark during that week. Believe it or not we actually got really good data back from it.  The students seemed to take it very seriously for the most part.  I did have a full day available to me after the benchmark that I didn’t want to use to start my next unit.  We have plenty of time for that after the holidays.  The students were tired and I was tired as well.  We needed to do something different.

I choose to teach them the basics of computer programming using the Hour of Code campaign as my platform.  Some of the sponsors are some serious heavy hitters in the tech industry like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.  The entire platform is free for kids to explore and is designed to be completed within an hour.  We chose to write their first computer programs using the Angry Birds game found on the Hour of Code website.

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The video instructions are super easy for kids to follow, and the interface where the actual programming is done is fun and intuitive.  It was easily accessible for my 8th graders and I also had a 5th grade co-worker doing it in his class.  I played the videos and let them plug away at the code for the remainder of the period.

The thing that surprised me the most was that when they came to a problem that they needed to work through  they didn’t just give up in despair.  Instead, they were talking their problems out with their peers and finding solutions together.  It was awesome to watch.

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I only have 45 minute class periods but I would say that nearly half of them got through all of the 20 modules that they were presented.  At the end the end they are given a certificate that they can print out that says that they completed the hour of code.

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The goal behind this exercise was to show my students that science is more than just mixing chemicals or digging in the dirt.  There are all kinds of sciences in the computer field that students are not exposed to at an early age.  I even had one student tell me that, “I loved doing this.  I want to be a computer scientist now!”  I wonder if she would have said the same thing if let them have a ‘free day’.

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