LIMA — Staff members at Lima City School District on Monday joined educators from more than 180 countries in an event called Hour of Code, a global movement meant to teach people about the logic behind computer coding.
Nearly 20 members of Lima schools’ staff participated in the event, where instructors from a variety of the district’s buildings learned the basics of coding and computer programming logic.
“No one expects everybody to learn to program in an hour, so what we’re hoping to do is create awareness of the logic behind programming so that it demystifies the process,” said Peter Badertscher, director of technology at Lima schools.
Using the Hour of Code website, instructors worked through various modules the website uses to teach basic programming in a visual way. Teachers coded through programs that are likely familiar to schoolchildren, including the mobile game “Angry Birds,” and movies such as “Star Wars” and “Frozen.”
“It’s really just an experimentation lab,” Badertscher said. “They work through the basics of programming and logic, and then experiment using those applications.”
Susan Beam, a kindergarten through fifth-grade teacher at South Science and Technology Magnet School, said many of her pupils began working through the modules on Monday. Because the modules use drag-and-drop techniques instead of dense coding, Beam said her third- through fifth-graders were able to work through the program fairly easily.
“They seem to be really thrilled about doing it,” Beam said. “A lot of times there’s a lot of noise in a tech class, but you could have heard a pin drop because they were so in tune with what’s going on.”
Beam described coding as “learning a new language,” and said her pupils can benefit greatly from the experience.
“Kids are so fascinated with games, so it’s the idea that if you learn code, you can truly make a game instead of just playing it,” she said. “There’s a lot of jobs out there for programmers, so I want to show them the professional implications as well.”
Beam said she hopes to make this a weekly activity for her pupils beginning in 2016.
For Badertscher, Hour of Code was about making people more aware of the world around them.
“If you look around the room, or you look outside, you see hundreds of applications of programming,” he said. “People assume it just works and it’s not something they need to deal with, but the fact is we’re interacting with this on a momentary basis, be it cellphones or computers or whatever.
“The more awareness they have, the more people can create their own ideas that could lead to their own programs.”
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