Parent Teacher Magazine Union County Public School Jan/Feb 2016 | Page 13

UCPS students join millions in global Hour of Coding

After dragging and dropping the last
They’re asking me if I will send it home.”
block of code into the line of instructions
The most challenging part for
on her ThinkPad, Caroline Souza, a third
students, Newell said, is reading the
grader at Wesley Chapel Elementary
directions and thinking through the
School, sat holding her breath.
strategic process, while the most
She stared quietly, the palms of her
rewarding part of the activity is seeing
hands pressed together as if in prayer,
their hard work pay off.
slightly touching her lips, anxiously
“They enjoy seeing their work come
waiting to see if her code would move her
alive,” Newell said. “They love running
character through the maze of the video
(the program). Once they write the code,
game she was creating.
they watch it go on the screen. They
When that hard work paid off and
watch it happen.”
her character did exactly as he was
Mayfield said she is impressed that
instructed, Caroline threw her hands
students are learning coding at such an
above her head in triumph, jumped up
early age.
from her seat, and announced, “I did it!”
“In most cases, before you learn
This scene was repeated through out
computer science, you’re in high school
the morning in Kim Mayfield’s third-grade
or in college,” she said. “They’re starting
class at Wesley Chapel Elementary during
in third grade and in kindergarten. By the
the Hour of Coding.
time they run through this, when they get
Three UCPS middle schools and about
to a certain age, they can move forward
20 elementary schools participated in this
and code on their own. It’s demystified for
Caroline Souza, a third grader at Wesley Chapel
global movement, which began Monday,
them. It’s not a mystery. It’s not difficult.
Elementary, looks on in anticipation of her code
(Dec. 7), and reached millions of students working to make the character in her game move in
It’s not scary. It’s something they’re able
in more than 180 countries, including the the direction she would like it to move.
to do because they’re practicing it now.”
--This article was written by UCPS
United States.
Communications Coordinator Deb Coates
“It’s a process that’s going on all over
Bledsoe and provided courtesy of the Communications Office of the
the world, to teach children about computer science and coding,”
Union County Public Schools.
Mayfield said. “In this world, computer science is critical. Not only
do they need to learn how to use computers, they also need to
understand how they work.”
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Mayfield said students first listened to information about coding
and were then given instructions on how to use the blocks of code that
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would move an animated character in what is basically a video game.
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“Every action they take makes their game move,” Mayfield said.
“Instead of them playing a game, they’re actually developing a game
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“It’s fun but it can also get frustrating when you don’t know the
exact instructions,” Caroline said. “The fun part is learning how to do it.”
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“The Hour of Coding is just
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an extension of what they
do every day,” she said.
“It’s going very well. Today
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is third grade. Tomorrow
is first grade. By the end
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of the week, every student
at Wesley Chapel will have
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Wesley Chapel Elementary School, is
Another third-grade
Parent Teacher Magazine for a
happy to see his coding has worked,
and a
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making the character in his video
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coding in her class also went game move in the direction he
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