‘Hour of coding’ took place in the IIT classes around Osceola and around the world on December 9th. “Hour of coding teaches people how to program a computer, but it doesn’t take any specialized training to do this! Anyone between the ages 4 and 104 can do this” said Mrs. Thompson.

Students in the ITT classes went on code.org and were able to code patterns such as creating a “Winter Wonderland with Anna and Elsa” by coding their movements. “Coding is a problem solving process; in order to make the computer do certain things you must have the correct code,” said Mrs. Thompson. Students used a programming lesson using a drag and drop editor that allows them to move animated characters in certain directions or positions.

“The hour of programming is used to get people interested in coding, most people think that coding takes certain qualification’s but really anyone can do it,” said Mrs. Thompson. Students worked on tutorials that teach JavaScript, apps for phones, and tutorials to make their own games.

“You can practically use any piece of technology; phone, computer, or tablet to make games and codes that fit to your technological device,” said Mrs. Thompson. ITT classmate Miranda Crown, 9th grade, is not interested in doing coding as a career, but had a lot of fun creating games during the hour of coding. “I made a flappy birds game by dragging and dropping boxes that create movements of the birds. I really enjoyed it and it was fairly simple,” said Crown.

Miranda also expressed her interest about how hour of coding was a worldwide event that other teens like her in other country could participate. “I think it’s cool how you can be doing the same activity as people thousands of miles away from you” said Crown.

“Coding is truly the new language of our world and everyone should be able to experience it” said Mrs. Thompson.