Computer Science Education Week 2016, Hour of Code and your Developer Relations Program
Each year in early December, our industry celebrates the birth date of Admiral Grace Hopper (December 9, 1906) with a week long celebration called Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek). This year CSEdWeek take place during December 5-11, 2016. CSEdWeek focuses on inspiring kindergarten thru 12th grade students to take an interest in computer science. One of the BIG activities during CSEdWeek is the “Hour of Code” (even though it can be hosted anytime). The Hour of Code shows how you can teach a child a little bit about programming in one hour. More than 80,000 CSEdWeek / Hour of Code event will be taking place in December. Is your company’s Developer Relations Program involved in CDEdWeek?
Computer Science Education Week (December 5-11, 2016)
Here are links to information about CSEdWeek activities, resources and how to participate:
- Home page – https://csedweek.org/
- Twitter handle – @CSEdWeek (https://twitter.com/CSEdWeek)
- Learning Activities – https://csedweek.org/learn
- Teaching Tips & Resources – https://csedweek.org/educate/hoc
- Promote CSEdWeek and Hour of Code – https://csedweek.org/promote
- Information about How to Help – https://csedweek.org/help
Hour of Code
The Hour of Code is a global movement to help teach programming. From the web site: “The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 45 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104.” I received an email from ACM saying “Over the past three years, the Hour of Code has introduced over 100 million students in more than 180 countries to computer science.”. Here are some resources and tips for your developer relations program and yourself to take part in, help a local school or host your own Hour of Code:
- Hour of Code web site – https://hourofcode.com/
- How to Teach one hour of code – https://hourofcode.com/us/how-to
- How to Get Involved – https://hourofcode.com/us/promote
I received an email today from Hadi Partova (Founder and CEO, Code.org):
If you did the Hour of Code last year with your class, you might have used our Minecraft tutorial. Since launching, it’s been used over 31 million times by students—thank you for making this fun and exciting introduction to computer science so popular!
For 2016, Code.org, Microsoft and Mojang are announcing the all-new Minecraft Hour of Code Designer, a tutorial that lets students code their own Minecraft rules. This year, students can use code to control how animals and other Minecraft creatures behave—they can create a totally unique Minecraft experience, and then share it with friends or play it on their phones!
The new tutorial begins in a Minecraft world where sheep don’t move, the chickens don’t cluck, and nothing attacks: it’s a blank slate without movement or defined action. Over the course of an hour, students will bring this world to life using computer science. At the final level, they get to define the rules of Minecraft however they wish. If they want, the cows can lay eggs, sheep can explode, and zombies can run away from players!
If you used last year’s Minecraft activity, the new one provides a perfect way to expand your students’ knowledge of computer science. For new teachers, we are pleased to offer both tutorials, which require no experience to teach.
We’re thrilled to add Minecraft Hour of Code Designer to our list of activities for this year’s Hour of Code. If you haven’t checked out the expanded list yet, there are tons of new activities that you can filter on our site based on grade level, experience level, subject area, and more. Find the perfect activity for your class at https://code.org/learn.
Computer Science Education Week (December 5-11, 2016) is almost here! Sign up your Hour of Code event here if you haven’t yet and get ready to do the new Minecraft tutorial with your class!
Hadi Partovi, Code.org
Companies and Organizations that are Involved in CSEdWeek 2016 and the Hour of Code
Microsoft and Code.org – “Microsoft and Code.org announce free Minecraft Hour of Code tutorial for Computer Science Education Week, Dec. 5–11”
Amazon – “Amazon Pledges Support for Young Coders”
Learning.com – “Go Bananas with Easy Code” – “Learning.com has taken the pledge to support President Obama’s Computer Science for All initiative by providing free access to our computational thinking and coding lessons from December 5th – 9th, 2016.”
Disney – “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” – “a free online tutorial to teach kids the basics of computer science. The tutorial features characters from Moana, Disney’s upcoming animated feature film.”
Apple – Free Hour of Code workshops December 5 through 11 at every Apple Store – “register for Hour of Code workshops at all 487 Apple retail stores worldwide”
What is your Company and Developer Relations Programming doing for this year’s CSEdWeek and Hour of Code?
Send me an email and I will update this blog post with information and links about what you are doing this year.
—
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
