Grade 5 – Hour of Code

Today our grade 5 students participated in the Hour of Code. The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.

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We started off by discussing the meaning of computational thinking followed by a “secret message” decoding activity. Students then wrote secret messages to each other and we discussed how this was a form of computational thinking.

Next we directed students to code.org. This organisation have developed a plethora of resources towards learning the basics of coding. The website states, “Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science.”

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Students chose between a variety of one hour coding activities. Coding themes included Star Wars, Mine Craft, Angry Birds and Frozen. For the next hour the room was abuzz with collaborative problem solving and random cheers as students conquered various coding levels. An online coding certificate was awarded to each group as they completed the hour of code.

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Some students who had previous experience in coding with the robotics club worked through an introduction to JavaScript tutorial.

At the end of the session we sat together and discussed the “Hour”. Strategies, challenges and techniques were shared with enthusiasm. We also discussed some of the language around coding, including terms such as debugging, looping and algorithms.

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