DCDS participated heavily in the 2019 Global Hour of Code event. By rough calculation, reportedly more than twice as many teachers took some class time for specific Hour of Code activities than last year. We thought we would share a few highlights!

Coding is not just for Upper Level students. Dianna Matthews, a Lower School science teacher, worked with students from JK, Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. The JK & K students worked together on the BenQ’s trying to create a code to save a cat from a tree. 

Mrs. Degazio allowed students to choose their own activities from a large selection of resources from the Hour of Code website. The variety of choices was able to meet the needs of all students’ interests.

Abbey Symanow shows PreK4 students how to use Scratch. Scratch allows students to create Interactive stories. It helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.

Below, a student. uses Tynker, the #1 Coding program for kids, to design a game. 

Left:  Miles writes code in the screen on the left and is able to see the impact of his code on the object in screen on the right. 

Hills uses the program Robotmagic to design a robot and move it in 3 dimensions.

Happenings Bonus

Here is a link to a 2012, 16 minute Ted Talk by the creator of Scratch who discusses the positive impact of coding on students socially and developmentally.

Below, Meghan Kerleto’s 4th grade class was given a code-created environment where students had to identify a problem in an ecosystem. The environment had many components (biotic/abiotic factors, producers and consumers in the food web, etc) which impacted the environment. Students, each representing a different component in the environment, came up with possible solutions to the problem. Students then made changes to the code showing how their choices impacted the environment.

All these activities demonstrate how every child can be engaged in fun, but deep learning activities involved with coding regardless of their age. We believe that DCDS participation in this year’s Global Hour of Code event was a huge success!