On Monday and Tuesday, December 5th and 6th, students in Mr. Georgsson’s Eighth Grade Business Education classroom took part in what has been dubbed “the largest educational event in history”.

Hour of Code is an initiative to get students to spend an hour of time learning to program, as part of national CS Education Week (December 5-9, 2016).  The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries through a one-hour introduction to computer science and computer programming.

The hour of code activity in Mr. Georgsson’s classroom exposed students to programming concepts via a visual programming language called Blockly.  Blockly uses blocks that link together to make writing code easier, and can generate JavaScript, Python, PHP or Dartcode.

Although pensive at first, once students delved into the “Play Lab” activity they found the lesson both illuminating and fun.  Each student picked their own theme to explore and, through a series of steps, were exposed to individual programming concepts.  Each step would build upon the previous one until students had the knowledge necessary to complete either a compelling story or fun, playable game.  The final stage involved students testing whether their programs were up to snuff, i.e. they played their games or reviewed their story.

At the end of the programming phase, students could share their programs with their classmates and experience each other’s creations.  This is the only time playing a game in Mr. Georgsson’s classroom is appropriate!  At the end of the activity, students gave enthusiastic reviews asking for more activities in the same vein.