Hour(s) of Code!

This is a post for the Student Blogging Challenge! Let's get coding!

Hour of Code is an annual event to promote Computer Science. According to their website: 

The Hour of Code takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week. The 2018 Computer Science Education Week will be December 3-7, but you can host an Hour of Code all year round. Computer Science Education Week is held annually in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906). 

We're starting Hour of Code and changing the name to Hours of Code!

Thank you, Hadi Partovi for creating this project!

Computer Science week coincides with the birthdays of two computer science pioneers. A pioneer is a person who is one of the first to enter a field of study or explore a new area of thought. 

1. Ada Lovelace, born in England on December 10, 1815, is considered the world's first computer programmer.

Photo Credit


2.  Grace Hopper, whose birthday is December 9, 1906, was an American computer programmer and Navy rear admiral. She contributed to the development of the COBOL language and is credited with popularizing the term "computer bug" in the programming community. 


Grace Hopper said, "To me programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge."

💻          💻          💻

One of the important things about problem-solving is persevering. Sometimes you try an algorithm, or list of steps used to solve a problem,  and it fails, adjust your algorithm. Try again! This strategy is called trial and error. 




Check out this group below who worked collaboratively to solve a very difficult puzzle. First, they tried to solve it online. The code failed. Next, they tried to write the steps out on paper to look for a loop. That helped, but the code still failed. Finally, Mrs. Yollis gave us a small hint using the solution. That did it. The zombies ate the sunflower!

As a surprise for the class, I booked Mrs. Minnicozzi, our district tech expert, and she taught a robotics class! We applied our Blockly coding to robots!

Mrs. Minnicozzi showed us how to link blocks together on the ipad to make the robots dance.

We worked in small groups to get the bots to boogie.

After the dance competition was over, Mrs. Minnicozzi hit the road with her wagon of bots!

Students, on our Blogger blog, you can use HTML code to level up your comments. Here is some information about HTML code. Here is the HTML code for some fancy shapes. There are many more!

What do you like about coding?

What did you learn about robots from Mrs. Minnicozzi?

What are you creating? 

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Hour(s) of Code!

Hour of Code is an annual event to promote Computer Science. According to their website: 

The Hour of Code takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week. The 2017 Computer Science Education Week will be December 4-10, but you can host an Hour of Code all year round. Computer Science Education Week is held annually in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906). 

We're starting Hour of Code and changing the name to Hours of Code!

Thank you, Hadi Partovi for creating this project!

To prepare for our coding lessons, we did a collaborative unplugged activity involving building. The challenge was to build a free-standing tower out of 20 pieces of spaghetti. At the top of the tower was a marshmallow. Only 1 meter of tape and 1 meter of string were allowed to create the tower. 

This building challenge was a great chance to practice the strategy of trial and error. If your design didn't work, try another tactic! 

In preparation, we watched a building video on BrainPop.

Then it was time to start building!

 Some bundled the pasta together for strength. 

Others spread out the sticks for a broad base. 

The pyramid base was an idea from the BrainPop video! 

After 18 minutes, the building time was up!

1st Place :: 47 cm

2nd Place :: 46 cm

3rd Place :: 42 cm

Fun fact, this tower is still standing today!

Everyone enjoyed the first build! 

One tower was so tall is rose above 60 centimeters! Unfortunately, gravity was not a friend. 

After learning about the importance of trial and error, the class signed into our Hour of Code class. 

We needed our secret image to sign in! What a cute array! 

Let the coding begin!

What are you enjoying about the Hour of Code?

What skills have you learned?

What can you do with coding? 

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Hour of Code!

Computer Science Education Week

December 5 - 11, 2016

To celebrate Computer Science Education Week, Mrs. Yollis and her students participated in the global Hour of Code! This is the fourth year of participation for Mrs. Yollis' class. 

Hour of Code ~ 2013

Hour of Code ~ 2014 

Hour of Code ~ 2015

Thank you, Hadi Partovi for creating this project!

💻          💻          💻

Computer Science week coincides with the birthdays of two computer science pioneers. A pioneer is a person who is one of the first to enter a field of study or explore a new area of thought. 

1. Ada Lovelace, born in England on December 10, 1815, is considered the world's first computer programmer.

Photo Credit


2.  Grace Hopper, whose birthday is December 9, 1906, was an American computer programmer and Navy rear admiral. She contributed to the development of the COBOL language and is credited with popularizing the term "computer bug" in the programming community.


Grace Hopper said, "To me programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge."

💻          💻          💻

The Hour of Code tutorials are found HERE. Students, you are free to continue using these tutorials at home with your parents. Share what you've learned with the class in the comment section!

We Tweeted about our progress using the hashtag #HourOfCode. 

What did you create with code?

What are some coding sites or apps that you like?

Teach us some code in the comment section!  

Read More

FBM Winner :: Elie's Java Script Game

Elie is our second place winner for Family Blogging Month! Congratulations on your win! 

♕          ♕        ♕

One of the prizes included a free post on Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog. Elie is a fine, fine coder and created this game for you on Code.org.

Photo by Mrs. Yollis

Here is the code Elie used to create this game:  

Here is Elie playing his game and narrating some of the elements. He used the Acer app called Kazam to make this screencast. 

What did you learn about robots from Aaron?

How are robots like the games and tasks on Code.org and Hour of Code?

Do you have any follow-up questions for Aaron? 

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aaron, code.org, hour_of_code, javascript, robots No comments

Hour of Code!

Computer Science Education Week

December 7 - 13, 2015

To celebrate Computer Science Education Week, Mrs. Yollis and her students will participate in the global Hour of Code! This is the third year of participation for Mrs. Yollis' class. 

Hour of Code ~ 2013 

Hour of Code ~ 2014 

Thank you, Hadi Partovi for creating this project!

Computer Science week coincides with the birthdays of two computer science pioneers. A pioneer is a person who is one of the first to enter a field of study or explore a new area of thought. 

• Ada Lovelace, born in England on December 10, 1815, is considered the world's first computer programmer.

• Grace Hopper, whose birthday is December 9, 1906, was an American computer programmer and Navy rear admiral. She

  

  Photo Credit

  contributed to the development of the COBOL language and is credited with popularizing the term "computer bug" in the programming community. 

Grace Hopper said: "To me programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge."

For students:

We will be accessing these Hour of Code Tutorials on our Acers or iPads. 

A hearty thank you, Lisa Highfill for putting these Hour of Code tutorials into a useful hyperdoc! 

Students, you are free to go to these tutorials at home with your parents. Share what you've learned with the class in the comment section! On Monday, we will start our Hour of Code Tutorials and begin to write and create with code!

We will be Tweeting about our progress using the hashtag #HourOfCode. 

Because coding is a language, Hour of Code activities will also serve as our grammar homework for the week!

What are you going to create with code?

What are some coding sites or apps that you like?

Teach us some code in the comment section!  

Read More