It’s the year 2015 and the Hour of Code is more exciting than ever…
About the Hour of Code
If you have absolutely no idea what the hour of code is, here it is in a nutshell:
The Hour of Code is a global movement with a goal of reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. If you need help, the Hour of Code website offers one-hour tutorials in over 40 languages. No experience is needed and anyone from the ages of 4 to 104 is free to participate so get coding now!
2015 Hour of Code
If you have ever struggled to get your kids to participate in an hour of code, you may find these cool hour of code programs helpful…
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens hitting the cinemas this December, “Star Wars – Building a Galaxy with Code” could note have come at a more opportune time. The program is available in two formats to reach a wider group of children:
In an hour of Star Wars, your child will work with Rey and BB-8, the cool new spherical droid, and build a Star Wars game that will also teach your child the basic concepts of programming. In this program, your child will use drag and drop blocks to write the program.
An oldie but a goodie, Frozen is still a big hit for our young girls. In this program, your child will create snowflakes and patterns while ice skating. Using Blockly with drag and drop visual blocks to write the program, your child will be able to make a winter wonderland that she can share with her friends.
Got a child who loves Angry Birds? Well, now he can create his own Angry Bird Game using Blockly, a visual programming language where you drag and drop blocks to write code.
If your child loves monsters, then the Hour of Code: Mystery Island is for you…
Worried about your child’s screen time? No worries, the Hour of Code is also available offline with these “unplugged” programs:
- My Robotic Friends – Using a pre-defined “Robot Vocabulary” students will figure out how to guide each other to accomplish specific tasks without discussing them first. This lesson teaches children the connection between symbols and actions, as well as the invaluable skill of debugging.
- Conditionals with Cards – Learn about algorithms and conditional statements using a deck of cards.
- Binary Baubles – Students learn about representing and storing letters in binary, as functions of on and off.
- fuzzFamily Frenzy – Designed for use with plain paper, the fuzzFamily Frenzy is an introduction to programming logic for kids 5 and up. The goal is for the student to program a partner to complete a simple obstacle course.
- Rock, Paper, Scissors – This activity helps students learn how modeling and simulation works by having a group of students play different versions of the Rock / Paper / Scissors game.
- What’s the big deal about coding?
- 5 Reasons to get kids into robotics
- Apps: STEM Islands – Physics of Light, Motion, Sound and Heat
- BP Educational Service – STEM Online Resources
- Mystery Science: Open and go lessons for kids