Tag Archives: coding

Hamilton MS ‘Scratch Off’ contest gives students a taste of coding careers

The team from McGowen ES, who won first place in the beginner division

The team from McGowen ES, who won first place in the beginner division

About 50 teams of students from various HISD elementary and middle schools came together on the campus of Hamilton Middle School May 2, and all were eager to test their mettle as coders in the school’s inaugural “Scratch Off” contest.

Named in honor of the free programming language developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the competition challenged students to complete 20 tasks using Scratch, such as making an animated character called a “sprite” change color or move in particular ways on the screen.

By the time the competition was over, Pin Oak Middle School had nailed down the victory in the advanced division, while a team of students from McGowen Elementary School took home the laurels in the beginner division. Continue reading →

Day 4: Code.org awards school $10,000 for new laptops

Students at Kolter Elementary School cheered and posed for pictures alongside a $10,000 check from Code.org that will go toward purchasing new laptops after the school won the nonprofit’s Hour of Code registration challenge. Kolter was selected as the Texas school winner along with 50 other schools that were named the winners for their state. [su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/114167212″ ]

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HISD joins the Hour of Code global initiative

STEM Clifton

Approximately 107 HISD schools have registered to participate in the Hour of Code as part of Computer Science Education Week, Dec. 8–14. The week-long global initiative encourages students of all ages to learn the basics of coding, engineering, computer programming, and gaming.

It is estimated that by 2020, 1.4 million jobs will be created in the computing related fields, but U.S. graduates are only on track to filling 29 percent of them. Continue reading →