Alpine Elementary fourth graders Amya Quiroga and Ryhanna West are fans of computer coding.
“Today, I just learned that even though they’re dances, they still could be science,” said Amya.
Added Ryhanna: “There are different things you can choose. The science we learn is really cool and other people should learn it.”
Good feedback for Kenowa Hills K-5 STEM teacher Michele Dykstra, who led students including Amya and Ryhanna in Hour of Code Dec. 9-15 during Computer Science Education Week at Alpine and Zinser Elementary Schools.
“For every 10 people in computer science, seven of them are men. This opens the eyes to females, especially … ,” Dykstra said.
• Just 22% of AP computer science students are women, and only 13% are African American or Hispanic.
• Nine of 10 parents say they want their child to study computer science, but only one in four schools teach computer programming.
• Computing makes up two-thirds of projected new jobs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).
• Computing occupations are among the highest-paying jobs for new graduates, yet fewer than 3% of college students graduate with a degree in computer science and only 8% of STEM graduates are in computer science.
source: Computer Science Education Week
Worldwide Event
Millions of students in more than 180 countries have played hundreds of Hour of Code tutorials in more than 45 languages.
In between the Hour of Code instruction, Dykstra showed slides about how many job openings there’ll be in the next century.
“I get some students that say they’d love to do this for a career,” said Dykstra, who sees every K-5 student in the district once a week for 45 minutes. Creating algorithms is part of the state standard for students in grades K-5. “This is a great way to incorporate science standards, and they’re having a blast,” she said.
Dykstra’s class was in its ninth week of coding when they participated in the worldwide event. It was the first time Kenowa Hills took part.
Hour of Code takes place during Computer Science Education Week, which was created to recognize the birthday of early 20th century computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper.
