Hour of Code is a global movement designed to show people that anybody can learn the basics of computer coding. It happens each year during Computer Science Education Week, this year from December 5th through the 11th. This educational week is held annually in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer and amazing historical lady Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, who was born on December 9, 1906. Admiral Hopper, often called ‘Amazing Grace’ due to her accomplishments and naval rank, was one of the first programmers for a computer built in 1944 and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language.
Hour of Code is an opportunity to open the eyes of children and adults alike to the fun and functional uses of computer science and programming. Personally, I’ve found coding fun ever since I got a Neopet and wanted to make a website for them. A lot of the time, though, coding can come across as difficult or boring. That’s where Hour of Code comes in! Both the official page for Hour of Code and plenty of other pages (see the end of this post!) have fun, easy, one-hour introductions to different types of computer programming.
There’s plenty to do for Hour of Code, so grab a friend or two and start learning about the wonder of code!
For fun online activities, check out these websites:
https://www.khanacademy.org/hourofcode
https://code.org/learn
https://hourofcode.com/us/learn
https://www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/
https://scratch.mit.edu/
Don’t have a computer at home or want to have some ‘unplugged’ time? No problem!
http://csunplugged.org/
https://code.org/curriculum/unplugged
https://csedweek.org/unplugged/thinkersmith
And, of course, don’t forget to check out what the library has coming up for coding programming! For adults, we’ve got space in our Coding for Complete Beginners class this February and for kids there are two sessions of Sylvan Lego Robotics — for Grades K-2 and for Grades 3-6. Sign up now!
