West Mercer second graders participated in an Hour of Code event on Dec. 7, learning about patterns and problem solving via computer tutorials. The event is part of Computer Science Education Week, which encourages coding and computer science access and instruction.
Hour of Code is sponsored by Seattle-based Code.org, which has created free tutorials with the help of engineers from companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Google for teachers to use in class. Code.org projects that by 2020, there will be 1 million more jobs in computer science than there are computer science students in the U.S., according to the Mercer Island School District website.
Second grade teacher Karen Glantz-Salesky has been integrating coding-based curriculum into her classroom this fall. She also has students practice their computer skills through “unplugged” projects. Last Wednesday, half of her students played programming games on iPads, while the other half used toothpicks and gumdrops to build a structure that could hold a dictionary.
“The number one skill of computer programming is problem solving,” she said, noting that the hands-on projects show how coding can be applied in the real world.
Both activities reinforced the lesson about using algorithms, “a series of steps to accomplish a task.”
Second grade teacher Gail Calvo was with her students in the West Mercer computer lab, along with TOSA Kara Millsap. Students learned about loops, conditionals and the fundamentals of code by solving Minecraft and Moana-themed progression puzzles.
Millsap, one of district’s two elementary-level teachers on special assignment, said that the young students take to computer programming easily, having grown up as “digital natives.”
Students learn that the “computer does exactly what you say, if you give it the right directions,” Millsap said.
Preparing students for a digital economy is a core piece of the district’s Vision 2020, which includes preparing students for potential careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
