Coding for Kids
The Beacon News
12/12/13
Biff needs to collect five power cells. The trouble is, the moon base is filled with zombies that will sap Biff’s health if they touch him.
Who can protect Biff from the zombies and help the spaceman collect the power cells? Enter eighth-grader Keanan Ginell, who armed Biff with laser bombs and other tools to help him on his quest.
Fighting space zombies was just one of the Hour of Code activities hosted by Crone Middle School in Indian Prairie School District 204 as a part of Computer Science Education Week held annually during the week of Dec. 9, the birthday of computer programming pioneer Grace Murray Hopper.
Computer teacher Sandy Knight said computer science provides a foundation for virtually any career, and the basics can be learned by anybody, starting in elementary school.
But fewer than 10 percent of students try, and only 2 percent are women and 1 percent are students of color.
The goal of Hour of Code is to introduce kids to the basics of computer programming so they can continue to add more challenging concepts as they get older. The two-day event at Crone gave students the opportunity to work on their choice of coding activities, including playing an Angry Birds game, creating an animated holiday card, building a personalized online game, creating their own Android app, writing code using JavaScript, or using cups and note cards to work through the process of writing code.
Keanan was learning how to create his own video game using Tynker. Through Tynker, Keanan was able to use blocks to build the various aspects of the game including background scenes, sounds, characters, scoring and, of course, the different types of weaponry.
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