(TNS) — Centaurus High School computer science students are teaching Hour of Code lessons to Lafayette Elementary, Ryan Elementary and Meadowlark Elementary students this week.
On Monday, they worked with the third grade and fifth grade classes at Lafayette Elementary, encouraging the younger students as they moved blocks of code to create a dance party or a mini Minecraft game.
The grassroots Hour of Code effort is part of Computer Science Education Week. Free coding games create a one-hour introduction to computer science.
“It gives students a starting point,” said Centaurus computer science teacher Ann Root.
Centaurus offers coding, computer science foundations and principles, and cybersecurity classes. Root said she’s seeing more students come into high school with advanced computer science skills, though those students tend to get interested early because they have family members in the computer science industry.
“There’s still an equity issue,” Root said. “These guys can get a little hook in elementary school, then get more when they go to Angevine for middle school. “When they get to me at Centaurus, they feel like computer science is something they can access.”
Several of the Centaurus students remembered doing their own Hour of Code activities when they were in elementary school.
“When Hour of Code came to my elementary school, I had no idea what was going on,” said junior Charlotte Roberts. “I hope the kids here will have fun and possibly explore a bit more. Computer science can be very fun.”
Senior Emerson Bell, who plans to become a veterinarian, said she expects what she’s learning in her computer science class to be useful for the required data analysis in college. Plus, she said, she likes how computer science feels like solving puzzles.
“It’s a challenge,” she said.
Sophomore Noah Mayer said starting young makes learning to code easier. He started coding in second grade with his dad.
“It’s something I’m passionate about,” he said. “You just have to write code. That’s how you learn.”
Along with showing the elementary students an Hour of Code video, Centaurus junior Gray Korslund demonstrated a game she’s creating in the popular gaming platform Roblox that she plans to publish and release.
“Once you learn the coding language, you can make literally anything on here,” she said as she demonstrated how the characters she designed can run and fly. “It uses the same principles you’re going to use in the Hour of Code.”
Lafayette Elementary third grader Elyse Reed said she liked the creative aspects of coding as she demonstrated her dance party animation.
“You get to do the background and the dance moves and the song,” she said.
Fifth grader Felix Clarke also was a fan of the dance party coding game, adding he liked getting help from high school students.
“I love it,” he said. “I want to do this every day. It’s super fun.”
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