By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
HAMBLETON – Students at Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School took park in a global movement that reached tens of millions of students in more than 180 countries last week. Amy Moore, technology integration specialist at TVEMS helped students learn about computer coding during the Hour of Code event.
Moore said, “Computers are everywhere, changing every industry on the planet, but fewer than half of all schools teach computer science. Girls and minorities are severely underrepresented in computer science classes and in the technology industry. With the Hour of Code, computer science has been on homepages of Google, MSN, Yahoo! and Disney.”
Students at Tucker Valley in grades 3 through 8 joined in on the largest learning event in history during Computer Science Education Week, Dec. 5 to 11. Moore said the Hour of Code was organized by Code.org and more than 100 others.
On Monday, students in fifth grade used a game to learn more about coding.
“The program tells them certain things to do,” Moore said. “Last year, 180 countries participated with more than 100 million students. The event gets larger each year. This is my third year doing an Hour of Code with TVEMS students.”
Moore said there are stages from easy through hard to accommodate all levels of understanding.
“Last year there were 500,000 computer science jobs in the country,” Moore said. “Only 42,000 students graduated from college with a computer science degree.”
Blake Adams, of Parsons, said he likes coding.
“It is not hard,” Blake said. “I have done this before. I keep coding and running the code to make sure I have all of the steps right. That helps me see what I need to add next. I am adding a right turn next.”
When asked if computer science is a career he is thinking about in his future, he said, “Maybe.”
Malena Klus, of Parsons, said the ‘Hour of Code’ is awesome.
“I really enjoy computer programming,” Malena said. “I may want to do this when I get older, but if not this will still be helpful.”
Tucker County Commissioner Diane Hinkle joined the fifth-grade students Monday to learn more about the ‘Hour of Code.’
“I am learning to code,” Hinkle said. “It is so cool. I have never coded before. There are 500,000 jobs out there.”
Hinkle said she feels the ‘Hour of Code’ shows students there are wonderful job opportunities out there.
“I had no idea there were so many positions open out there,” she said. “To start learning to code at this level helps them learn and I think it is a great skill and said she thinks ‘Hour of Code’ is infectious and something the students will want to continue learning.”