Students loved conducting the tutorials using Angry Bird and Zombies. The tutorials were well designed and functioned very well for students. They loved making the characters move from place to place as well as figuring how to code. I loved that the tutorials progressed from easy to challenging. Many students remarked that that the first few stages were easy and they did not see the challenge. As they progressed though, they then found the activity more challenging and engaging. Several remarked that they had to think quite a bit about how to tell the objects to move. I laughed when some of the students who remarked "this is too easy" commented that it had gotten really hard. In one of the afternoon tutorials, I had three awesome 9th grade girls attend. Two of the girls got a really quick start on the tutorials and well into stages 9 and 10 while the third student was struggling with trying to code. This student had never coded before and found the activity challenging since she initially had difficulty in understanding that the computer did exactly what she told it to do. For example, if she coded for the bird to move two steps forward, it only moved two steps forward. It did not move any more or any less. As this student struggled, I provided some additional assistance and encouragement. The student began to really think like the computer and quickly realized that the computer does exactly what you tell it to do - nothing more, nothing less. As the student adapted to this way of thinking, she quickly learned how to manipulate the coding process for her own advantage. She mastered if / then statements and looping with more ease than the other two girls. In the end, the third girl quickly accelerated through the more challenging stages and only finished 2-3 minutes behind the other girls. I was impressed that she, in such a short period of time, had learned how to code and think like a computer.
Here are some of the more powerful reflections that I got from my students regarding coding:
- "It was fun to try something different. I never knew how to read code so it was cool to do something unusual."
- "It was fun to get to see the behind the scenes of games. I also liked to control what was going on."
- "I feel like it would be interesting to learn about coding because I could then set up and run a program, which would be cool to know how to do. Also, we use programs in my work that I could know how to work with."
Overall, I was so pleased that Salisbury High School could participate in this activity. I was also pleased that so many students commented that they found coding to be fun and interesting. Most realized that coding could be very challenging as well though. I did have several students comment that they did not enjoy coding and they did not think that this would be a good career for them. This is very powerful though in that students realized that coding is something that they do not want to do. This helps them to better focus in on what they may want to do in the future as a result.
In talking with several students as a result of this activity, many expressed an interest in learning more about coding and a desire to take a class that involves more coding. While I could only give them a brief introduction to coding, I did direct them to consider taking computer programming or AP Computer Science which is available to our students through online classes. I hope that they will be able to follow up on this opportunity. I had had several students sign up to complete the activity online through our Edu 2.0 management system as well which is encouraging. Also several of my colleagues in Career and Technical Education were also able to participate in the Hour of Code so I would estimate that we had a minimum of 86 students complete this awesome activity. I applaud the individuals who worked together to create this stellar opportunity for students worldwide and know that it will make a difference in the lives of many students and provide access to opportunities in computer science and programming.
Student expressing frustration when the computer program did not respond as she hoped.
Students learn how to code during the Hour of Code.
