What is An Hour of Code?

Coding is making its way across the face of our elementary classrooms. This month the word is spreading thanks to the push generated by Computer Science Education Week's campaign to introduce one hour of coding for as many as 10 million students. They provide tutorials for students to get them started with absolutely no previous training needed.
The integration of computer literacy, graphics, mathematics and personal narrative allow students to tap into the higher levels of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy as they create worlds of their own using tools like Scratch and Minecraft. Watching your students as they develop their own robotic friends and make shapes and entire worlds appear on their screens will provide the buy in that you may need as an educator to include an introductory, interactive learning experience that will only take an hour. Mr Tyler Watts, Computer Applications teacher for grades 6-8 at Arrowhead Middle School in Kansas City, KS, "Believes that all children should be introduced to programming to teach them Computational Thinking in order to better navigate our technology-rich world." He provides a sample of a problem one of his students encountered during their use of scratch to help other teachers who may encounter similar situations.

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