Wyoming Education Association

Winter 2015

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Winter 2015 | wyoea.org 9 HOUR OF CODE Sweetwater Education Association members Crystal Richardson and Kevin Harper had a busy Monday after school on December 7, with more than 40 students spanning first through fourth grades kicking off Computer Science Education Week (December 7 – 13, 2015). Years prior, Kevin had read about the importance of learning to code, and articles about computer science would pop up every now and then. It wasn't until recently he decided to visit www.code. org. After that, on an impulse he registered his school on https:// hourofcode.com/us to participate in the international movement called Hour of Code. The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. A feeling of panic followed. He went to his colleagues and principal. Principal Kris Cundall was all for it, and Crystal (Sweetwater County Tech Educator of the Year 2014) was more than willing to lend a hand. A little panic returned when the student permission forms kept coming in, even after the deadline. But with the help of https://hourofcode. com/us, colleagues, and the principal, the first day of the event went off without a hitch. The goal was to do a quick introduction and give most of the time to the kids to work together in pairs to complete the coding tutorials on code.org. A hope was that more than just boys would participate. Kevin was impressed with the number of girls, English language learners, and students of color who participated. "If they remember having fun, and know that computer science is something they can participate in even now, then I'm happy," Kevin said. In the first international Hour of Code, 15 million students tried computer science. Last year, that number increased to 60 million students! Only 25% of schools teach computer programming, even though 9 out of 10 parents want their child to study computer science. The majority of all new jobs in STEM fields are in computing, but only 8% of STEM graduates are in Computer Science. Consider including your students in an Hour of Code—go to https:// hourofcode.com/us. by Kevin Harper

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