Did you participate in the Hour of Code to spread awareness of coding?

The Hour of Code is a movement to encourage more people to enter the computer science field and become familiar with the act of coding. This event took place at LRHS during Computer Science Education Week in December, where students and faculty put their skills to the test by participating in coding games related to hits such as Frozen, Star Wars, and recreating your own Flappy Bird game. The event has taken on a national presence, and its popularity has even received the attention of popular national leaders such as Barack Obama, while sponsors include Google, Apple, Verizon, and Microsoft.

“An hour of code gives you one session of an intro to simplistic coding. It’s a good dip-your-toes-in type of exercise,” said Freshman Ayana Monroe, who participated in the event.

Monroe expounded on the importance of this event for our nation: “Other countries are stepping up their technological and cyber security game. This program gains interest for these topics.” The idea here is if people can have fun coding while playing these games, it can inspire them to learn more about this evolving field. Sammy Green a freshman also states “Our nationis evolving along with our technology we need people to step up and help and learn what coding can really do and how it can make an impact.”

“We have phones, and we have powerful computers. We need to know how to fix them, how to run [coding]; we can’t just be bystanders of our own future,” said Ms. Stone, the school’s Media Specialist.  

“The demand for computer science personnel has increased. And this program will definitely help fill that demand,” said Monroe. Green follows up with Monroe by saying “Everybody wants new phones and everything but people don’t care about how they did this if The Hour of Code will help the technology can be more advanced and advanced.”

The coding games challenge how the mind works. If one method of solving a coding-game dilemma fails to work, what can a novice coder learn? “To keep trying different ways to problem-solve,” said Ms. Stone.

The reality of coding is that its skills transfer across disciplines as well, allowing the coder to apply new learning to other fields. Monroe explained, “Coding helps you think in an organized way. Referring to English: an outline for a paper almost directly mirrors coding syntax.”

Although Computer Science Education Week has passed, students can still participate and enhance their coding skills at any time. See what all the fuss is about at www.hourofcode.com.

Even at Long Reach High School a group of students decided to inform us and give us some insight on the Hour of Code with a video on the announcements the leader of this group was  Aldi Maraya and led other seniors,juniors, and some softmores to the success of this video.