Built into the Lower School Coding curriculum at Moorestown Friends was a celebration of the global Hour of Code campaign, Dec. 7 to 13, to encourage children to code for the first time. This program, by Code.org, features a number of skill-building activities featuring Minecraft, Star Wars, and Frozen characters, but is far from Lower Schoolers’ first exposure to writing programs, thinking sequentially, and interacting with technology in creative ways. If anything, it is a week-long celebration to reinforce and build on the foundation that has already been set in place in the inaugural year of the unique Coding program that sees 3- to 10-year-olds learn to navigate, draw and manipulate virtual environments with code every week of the school year.
On Dec. 8, first graders also welcomed a guest speaker into their Coding class — parent Ryan Kennedy, Principal Architect at Kickdrum Technology Group.
Kennedy provided some examples of projects he works on professionally and how code relates to the work that he and his co-workers produce. As he presented a variety of apps, students were able to quickly identify coding terminology used such as “debugging” and “loops.”
He also brought a variety of props, which included buttons and sensors, all of which incorporate code in some way.
After he explained the coding involved in the four sensors and buttons, students then drafted observational drawings in small groups.
The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. The grassroots campaign goal is for tens of millions of students to try an Hour of Code during Dec. 7 to 13, in celebration of Computer Science Education Week.
