What a fun way to enjoy the penultimate day of the 2016 school year!
A whole school ‘Hour of Code’. This activity usually takes place during Computer Science Education Week Dec 5 – 11th, 2016, but as our school finishes before this date we run the Hour of Code early. This has become an annual event and previous years can be found here and here.
Year 6 students ran the afternoon by introducing the event followed by a video clip , then invited everyone to have some fun! The idea is to give our girls a chance to experience Computer Science through coding. The skills involved in coding can be used in everyday life.
Before the event I sent out the activities the students would be undertaking, including unplugged as well as online. 2016 Hour of Code Links sheet was sent to the Year 6 girls and teachers.
The activities included completing the tutorials on the official website of Hour of Code…. Minecraft Designer and Moanna for the older students. Younger students were able to try different apps like Bee Bot, Kodable and ScratchJr, while others did a number of unplugged games…..being robots and following instructions, crossing a river using patterns, sorting numbers and letters, solving network problems with fruit. Middle primary students used the Tickle App to program mini parrot drones and some programmed NXT Mindstorm robots to achieve set tasks and score points!
The year 6 girls did an amazing job of setting challenges and organising the younger students. They demonstrated excellent leadership skills.
Thought I’d share some of the photos of the girls…..following instructions like a robot, navigating in Bee Bot app to find the flower.
Girls programming NXT robots to collect points in a challenge and other girls understanding computers need algorithms to complete problems by sorting numbers into the correct order by following an algorithm.
Preps enjoying ScratchJR with Year 6 student. 
Teacher assisting a student with the internet connection….we kept losing connections again this year!!! Oh well….that’s technology and problems to solve!
Year 5 and 6’s worked through either Minecraft Designer or 
Moanna with a few completing the tutorial to receive certificates…
Overall it was a successful event …. I smiled when I heard…
First child…..”It was good fun” Second child…..”No, it was AWESOME fun!”