Las Cruces students sample the joy of programming
Hour of Code gives a fun introduction
At Oñate High School in Las Cruces, students are discovering the joy of coding. And many are beginning to see it as an important part of their future.
All of Oñate’s 1,700 students participated in the Hour of Code earlier this month, one of the largest educational events in history. The project, which exposes students to computer programming — or coding — with easy-tounderstand games and video messages from celebrities, has reached more than 130 million students to date. It has been touted by Google, Microsoft, Apple, President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Shakira, and Ashton Kutcher, and has received support from more than 500 corporations.
Oñate received a $10,000 award from Code.org to buy technology for the school and support the school’s efforts to teach coding to students.
The Hour of Code project was designed to help fill a tremendous need in America for computer science teachers, said Jeff Waugh, a computer science teacher at Oñate.
“The goal is to ultimately create 10,000 computer science teachers to fill this void,” Waugh said. “It’s just not taught very widely because, in most states, it’s not part of the core curriculum. It’s generally treated as an elective.”
Waugh said that some states have chosen to count computer science courses as science credits, while others states count it toward foreign language requirements.
“I’ve been pretty successful in getting kids to realize that it’s not that hard,” Waugh said. “The program itself is very simple, and it deals with things they like, like Minecraft and Star Wars. Last year, there was a ‘Frozen’-themed game that was really popular. After they complete the exercise, they can see the code behind it, and many begin to realize that they can do that. It helps to build their self-confidence.”
Zachary Neeley is a junior at Oñate. Zachary began learning to code as a seventhgrader, and is now proficient in coding and Web design. In fact, he designed and maintains the school’s website. But he said that the Hour of Code is a valuable tool for exposing other students to the joys of programming.
“I love coding. So when I saw they were doing this for kids who don’t understand how to do it, I thought it was so cool,” Zachary said. “I had to learn coding the hard way, reading lots and lots of books. This teaches you in a way that is very simple. For someone with no experience, this is an amazing tool to learn the basics.”
Sophomore David Kenny sat in Oñate’s new $100,000 Mac lab and worked through an Hour of Code activity.
“I’ve learned a lot in a very short amount of time. I’ve learned how coding makes apps and games operate,” David said. “I have zero experience with coding; before this year, I had no familiarity with it. Once you start to get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy.”
David said that he hopes to learn enough about coding to start developing games for PCs and entertainment consoles.
Nearby, sophomore Aaron Sanchez began to discover a future in coding. He had sought out a Khan Academy course online to begin learning more.
“Actually, I thought it was going to be hard,” Aaron said. “But I really like math, and it really came easily to me. Before today, I didn’t have any interest in coding. Now, I’m considering becoming a game designer for Microsoft, and make Xbox games. Before Hour of Code, it had never crossed my mind.”
Oñate Principal Jim Schapekham said he feels exposing his students to coding and programming is critical, because “this isn’t the future — it’s the present. It’s where we are, right now.”
Schapekham said that every industry is turning to computer-based technology to accomplish its goals and provide solutions.