“Hour of Code” is a world-wide initiative that takes place the second week of December to show students that anyone can code. Learning how to code gives students an opportunity to learn computer science and fosters creativity, logic and problem-solving skills.

At every elementary school in Rockwall ISD, students participated in Hour of Code, learning the basics of computer programming and even getting certificates for their hard work! The students quickly adapted to the concept of drag and drop Object-Oriented-Programming by providing appropriate program sequences to navigate a maze, as well as debugging existing programs.

Students at Stevenson elementary used Scratch-programming language to control Finch robots and also participated in hands-on robot programming with Dr. Allan Selis, who volunteered to bring coding through Thymio robots.

Sixth graders at Reinhardt Elementary wrote computer code to play the games: Angry Birds, Flappy Bird, Frozen, Code Combat, and Light Bot. Some students even created their own games. By participating in this code challenge, the students are learning JavaScript and Python, the coding languages of the future. Many of them also discovered that writing computer code is fun and not as hard as they thought it would be.

Both Cain and Williams Middle School students also participated in Hour of Code, coming in before school, after school, and during their classes to learn the basics of coding using block format. They also explored the fundamentals of Java Script and HTML5 and created a one-page website using code.

Students were actively engaged throughout their coding experiences and many want to continue their computer science learning. The spark for programming is clearly ignited in Rockwall ISD!

You can find out more about Hour of Code by going to http://hourofcode.com/us.