Neshaminy Students Take Part In ‘Hour of Code’

Provided by the Neshaminy School District:

Students in all three Neshaminy School District middle schools and Neshaminy High School recently participated in the world-wide Hour of Code , honing their computer programming skills through everything from creating their own mobile apps and games to sharing their computer knowledge with classmates and younger students. According to Janet Dougherty, lead teacher for BCIT (Business. Computer and Information Technology), over 1,600 district students in grades 4-12 participated in the program.

The Hour of Code is an educational program reaching millions of students in 180 countries. It was created by the non-profit http://www.Code.org , a free educational web site dedicated to teaching kids the basics of programming. The Hour of Code took place between December 8 and 14 to coincide with Computer Science Education Week (though the site says activities can be scheduled any time). Code.org is backed by some of the biggest names in technology, including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and The College Board, according to the project web site.

507 Neshaminy High School students used the Hour of Code tutorials to work with pre-coded blocks, and created coding puzzles and games to learn language concepts. Students wrote a program that animated their name, edited strings, included math operations, added Booleans, variables, functions and arrays to JavaScript code. Problem-solving skills were the centerpiece of all the activities.

At Maple Point Middle School, BCIT students heard from guest speakers that work in the technology industry, according to BCIT teacher Siri Sammartino. One student demonstrated a Rasberry Pi, a small, inexpensive, easily programmable open-source computer that is designed for experimentation and exploring new applications. Another student demonstrated her programmable robot, called MIP (Mobile Inverted Pendulum). This robot can be operated through an iPad and move about freely while intelligently avoiding obstacles, balancing objects and transport items across the room on a plastic tray.

Students at Carl Sandburg Middle School learned the basics of Javascript programming by using a programming language called Blockly (from Google) and Scratch (from MIT), and involved characters from such popular games as Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies 2 and Ice Age. Students also created their own version of the recently-popular game Flappy Bird. They were allowed to bring in their mobile devices to play their own games (example HERE).

Earlier in the year, seventh-graders at Sandburg designed bracelets using the Blockly language to program a 3-D printer. The students submitted their designs to www.madewithcode.org, another educational coding site geared toward involving girls with programming technology. They received their bracelets a few weeks later from the creators of the site – free of charge.

Sandburg principal Dawn Kelly called the Hour of Code, “Probably one of the greatest initiatives ever.”

Members of the Poquessing (Middle School) Computer Science Club invited fourth and fifth-grade students from nearby Ferderbar Elementary School to their computer lab as part of their Hour of Code project. The middle school students tutored the younger students on the Code.org site, helping them navigate the basics of programming and creating simple games. The Ferderbar students also received Hour of Code certificates for participating in the program. Poquessing BCIT teacher Karen Moraes and Ferderbar Library Media Specialist Gery Casterline collaborated on the project.

Moraes said the younger students enjoyed their projects, and expressed excitement about learning more coding in middle school.