In this episode, we talk about the Hour of Code. What is it? What does it do? Why should we particiapte and more importantly, how do we integrate coding in school.  We go beyond the hour and share how we truly integrate Scratch programming into student projects.  Check it out and let us know what you think!

 

Episode #4  [Four is the only number that has the same number of characters as its value in the English language; Fab 4:

Hour of Code & Beyond

* We are on Winter Break!!! LA, Disneyland

* What is the Hour of Code? Dec. 8-14

* International movement by the non-profit organization Code.org where their goal is to have every student, in every school have the opportunity to participate in computer science. Part of STEM, STEAM, STEMM, STREAM.  Another purpose- so that our students will be able to have the necessary skills for their future careers as computer programming is much more in demand.

* Major tech companies provides easy mini lessons based in popular games/movies.

* Unplugged- Robot Turtles board game

* Our own experiences growing up

* Logo: Turtle- Apple IIE

* Why should people, and our students in particular, participate and learn how to code?

* Creativity, Critical thinking, Collaboration, Communication skills (4C’s & Common Core), esp having students code in pairs or more

* Computational thinking (via Wikipedia)

* Analyzing and logically organizing data; breaking things down

* Data modeling, abstractions, and simulations

* Formulating problems such that computers may assist

* Identifying, testing, and implementing possible solutions

* Automating solutions via algorithmic thinking

* Generalizing and applying this process to other problems

* Helps us, our students use their knowledge about basic coding in their everyday lives and in their professional lives.  Maybe surgeons will use robots and help identify the code, or be able to vote or make legislation that maybe pivotal to the internet/robotics future and basic troubleshooting

* How can you integrate coding/programming into class projects

* LightBot- math: circles-rotations, degrees; cool music

* SCRATCH-going beyond the powerpoint/keynote presentation by creating interactive stories/games; easier to have people understand and interact with animation than bullet points

* It’s free!

* MIT and Harvard Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab

* Here are three student projects for you to try out. Keep in mind, that everything was made by the students.  All names have been removed.

* Cons of having everyone learn how to code

* Jeff Atwood

* Thank you all for joining us. Please leave an honest rating and comment for feedback. It’ll help us make our show better and helps our show be discovered by other teachers and people like you interested in education.  

* Check out our FREE Teach Your Students to Code Quickly with Scratch Programming Basics PDF in our Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

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