Science+CS Hour of Code Resources
Celebrate Computer Science Ed Week with an Hour of Code!
What is Hour of Code?
This year's THEME: #CSforGOOD
The Hour of Code will continue inspiring student creativity with a theme that we can’t wait to share with you: Computer Science for Good. #CSforGood
Inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Hour of Code will highlight how we can all use computer science to make a positive impact on our world, from writing apps to solve a local problem, to using innovative ideas in data science to address global challenges.
Whether that means building affordable technology to help farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, programming white blood cells to fight cancer, or revolutionizing the packaged foods industry with artificial intelligence, people are using CS in creative ways to solve problems and provide opportunities for others.
Share your #CSforGOOD projects on social media!
Follow us on social media and share your Hour of Code highlights!
We especially love seeing your classroom videos, photos, and student projects. Be sure to tag any post with: #CSforGood #CS4Aldine #AISDHoC #WeAreAldine #HourOfCode hourofcode.com
Where do you start for your campus?
- Register your class for the district Hour of Code.
- Start by communicating with your DLS, campus coding club sponsor, ILS(librarian) and campus tech committee(if available/established).
- Attend the Face-to-face meetings for Hour of Code planning!
And you can follow the steps outlined in the video below:
Choose an Hour of Code Activity
We picked out a few unplugged (or offline) and online activities we really like for integrating Computer Science into Science content and shared them below.
Activities are listed from primary grades to higher grades. You can find MANY more Hour of Code activities at https://hourofcode.com/us/learn.
Primary & Elementary Unplugged Activities
Writing and Interpreting Events
2nd-8th grades
Students will explore events, a concept that allows programs to respond to specific stimuli. Events are determined in bits of code called event handlers, which listen for specific events and contain instructions on how to respond. Students will learn key vocabulary and write text for event handlers in a Mad Libs-style exercise in which they create and act out event handlers of their own.
If Flash, Then Clap!
Primary- 5th grade
Flash! Clap! This hands-on, wild weather lesson teaches conditional statements with lightning and thunder. Students will learn about why thunder always follows lightning and will examine the logic statement "if there is lightning, then thunder will follow." Count the seconds between the two to see how far away the storm is!
Design a Robot
In this lesson, students will build their literacy skills while diving into the field of robotics. They'll watch Flocabulary's educational hip-hop video to find out what a robot is and see examples of robots in daily life. They'll close-read short passages about robots, discuss tasks that robots are well suited for and finish the lesson by designing their own robot to solve a specific problem.
Middle/ High School Unplugged Activities
Brain-in-a-bag Activity
This activity explores how computational modelling (a key part of computational thinking) can be used to help understand biological systems – here neurones. We see how the way our brains work has also been the inspiration for a new way to program computers and so give them intelligent abilities.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
6th-12 grades
This "unplugged" activity helps students learn how modeling and simulation works by having a group of students play different versions of the Rock / Paper / Scissors game, and see the results as different modeling experiments.
Suggested Online (Plugged) Activities
Find a Local Computer Science Volunteer
Spread the Word Before, DURING CSEW and Celebrate AFTER your Hour of Code!
Questions? Contact Us!
Hour of Code is a wonderful way to build excitement and provide students and educators opportunities to code! Please contact Shaina Glass if you're interested in incorporating Computer Science and coding into your classroom, school or learning community.
If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to Shaina (snglass@aldineisd.org) or your campus' Digital Learning Specialist for more information.
Email: snglass@aldineisd.org
Website: https://cs4aldine.blogspot.com/
Location: 9999 Veterans Memorial Drive, Houston, TX, USA
Phone: 713-539-8620
Twitter: @aldinestem