Huron Expositor, 2014-12-17, Page 21Wednesday, December 17, 2014 • Huron Expositor 21
Seaforth Public School participates in The Hour of Code
Cole Zwep, Grade 7 Seaforth
Public School.
QMI Agency
On Dec. 9, two intermediate
classes at Seaforth Public School
were invited to participate in "The
Hour of Code."
The Hour of Code is an event
that engages student and teachers
to try their hand at computer pro-
gramming, by playing games that
help master coding.
This skill is important to the next
generation seeing that almost eve-
rything now using code. From
Facebook to iPhones and even
refrigerators, the world is now in
deep with code. Almost everything
you use on a regular basis is coded.
Not only was the Hour of Code
educational, but students said it
was also extremely fun, allowing
them to interact with games such
as, "Make your own Flappy Bird"
and "Code Combat" all available at
code.org/learn.
The Hour of Code presentation
talked about the basics of coding,
what it is used for and how impor-
tant it is to our daily lives. "We
think it's critical that they learn at a
young age, so by the time they get
to college they are experts," said
Crystal Gascho and Jason Hillier,
AMDSB program and IT
departments respectively and
organizers of the Hour of Code at
SPS. "One of the beauties of pro-
gramming is you can take some-
one's code then put it to work in
your own way," said Hillier, a
computer scientist. "Coding is a
language worldwide that almost
everyone can do and is so easy to
understand," said Gascho.
Thirteen schools from Mitchell
to Wingham have had the oppor-
tunity to code thanks to Hour of
Code. That's hundreds of minds
engaged in code just in one
region. Over 60 million people
and counting have tried Hour of
Code from ages four to 104. That's
over 180 countries and millions of
minds engaged in this amazing
art.
The sad thing is it's not very
popular. Less than 2.4 per cent of
college students graduate with a
degree in computer science, and
those numbers have dropped in
the last decade. Nine out of 10
schools do not offer computer
programming classes.
This December, Hour of Code is
trying to teach 100 million people
how to code. If you don't think that
computer programming can be
fun, consider the opinions of these
Grade 7/8's at SPS who experi-
enced Hour of Code:
"It was awesome. I now know
games on how to code and I want
to make a game," said Jack
Campbell.
"I think that the Hour of Code is
a good opportunity for kids to do
stuff better on the iPads and com-
puters and it opens a lot more win-
dows and doors," said Dana
Latour.
"I think it was my favourite
learning thing," said Abby
Thomson.
Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year from all of us
at Optimal Health!
Dr. Kim, Kelly, Leanne,
Lorenda, Dr. Angela, Kelsey, Tara
Not only were the students
impressed, but so too were the
staff who participated in the event.
"I think it was cool to see how
engaged kids were with the various
programming software and how
kids could chose whatever level
they were comfortable with.
Thanks to Hour of Code, kids are
now interested in making their
own applications," said teacher
Tim Hundey.
Game developers can make
millions of dollars. Bill Gates has a
net worth value of 64 billion dol-
lars, all from developing software
using some of the same coding
methods we have been intro-
duced to. Global idols have been
promoting Hour of Code, from
Chris Bosh to U.S President Bar-
rak Obama.
Those interested in learning
more about the "Hour of Code"
can visit www.hourofcode.com to
learn more and watch the video.
The first rocket to land on the
moon was programmed, and as a
matter of fact, this very article was
able to be written electronically
thanks to computer
programming.
Photo submitted
Seaforth Public School students try their hand at computer programming during
the Hour of Code event on Dec. 9.
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