2nd graders have the code

Matt Bower
Posted 12/11/14

There was something exciting happening at Warwick Neck Elementary School Monday morning, as students gathered for an assembly, many of them wearing red, and began singing Christmas carols.

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2nd graders have the code

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There was something exciting happening at Warwick Neck Elementary School Monday morning, as students gathered for an assembly, many of them wearing red, and began singing Christmas carols.

This was no ordinary assembly, however. Students were singing to music generated by a computer program written by second grader Ben Williamson, who was demonstrating what he learned after participating in an Hour of Code during Computer Science Education Week last year as a first grader.

Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science designed to teach students how to write computer code and show that anyone can learn the basics through online tutorials provided by the nonprofit, Code.org.

Students use blocks of coding commands that can be moved and placed to connect with other blocks to fit together and form a programming sequence to execute the program, as opposed to typing text commands.

Although Hour of Code can take place anywhere at anytime, the goal is to get as many students as possible participating during Computer Science Education Week, which takes place in December.

Williamson took what he learned during Hour of Code and brought it home with him, where he began writing his own programs with help from his dad, Scott.

“It was really fun because I got to play around with it at the beginning and then I started looking up cheat sheets and working on my own programs,” Williamson said following the assembly. “We got to spend a lot of time together working on it.”

Scott said Hour of Code is a great way to introduce kids to computer programming.

“Most kids grow up not knowing what it takes for the software they all use to work and this is a great way to learn,” he said.

Ben said it took him about five hours to write programs that played “Frère Jacques,” “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.”

“I started messing around with it and discovered the notes would play a sound and I could make music,” he said. “You have to use midi notes, not A, B and G.”

Ben wasn’t the only second grader to demonstrate what he learned, as the purpose of the assembly was to allow students with previous Hour of Code experience to show their fellow classmates what they learned and what they’re able to do. It was all part of the school’s kickoff to Computer Science Education Week, which will run through Dec. 12.

Second graders Nolan Bowering, Michaela Fitzgerald and Carter Clifton also presented programs ranging from a cat dribbling a basketball and shooting it through a hoop, to two girls dancing across a stage, and three animals racing each other down a street. And second grader Georgia Shuster, dressed as Princess Anna from Disney’s “Frozen,” demonstrated how to connect coding sequences to solve several educational puzzle exercises involving “Frozen” characters, such as having Elsa skate in a square formation along the ice.

“When you’re working on a puzzle, if it’s not correct, you can drag and drop [command] pieces until you get it right,” said first grade teacher Tracey Mollock, who along with first grade teacher Amy Dolan brought Hour of Code to Warwick Neck and organized the assembly. “It’s all about trial and error.”

Principal Patricia Cousineau kicked off the assembly by asking students why coding is important.

“You like it because you get to play on the computers, but we have to look at it differently as teachers,” she said. “This will help you to read, write and learn problem solving and critical thinking skills. It [also] helps us work together. Today is all about collaboration and where this can take us.”

Cousineau said it also helps students with their math and direction skills as well as being creative.

“We had one Chrome cart in the library last year, and now we have three carts, which means 90 laptops for you to use because we understand this is where education is going,” she told the students.

Cousineau said students would participate in Hour of Code and work on puzzle exercises with school librarian Melissa Rapson throughout the rest of the week.

Following Cousineau’s remarks, first graders took turns reading information about computer science, talking about why computer programming is needed in schools, and explaining coding vocabulary words, such as algorithm, which was compared to brushing your teeth since it involves a list of steps; debug, which was represented by a Band-Aid to fix the problem; and binary, which was represented by a “2” because binary involves two steps.

“We brought it down to kid language,” Mollock said.

In addition to singing along to Ben’s programmed Christmas carols, music teacher Kristy Procaccianti led students in an original song she developed about writing code. To end the assembly, students heard from President Barack Obama through a recorded video message.

“We’re counting on you, America’s young people, to keep us on the cutting edge. Happy coding,” the president said.

Mollock said she and Amy took things one-step further with this year’s assembly.

“We talked about famous people and why coding was important last year,” she said. “This year, we had the kids talk about why it’s important.”

In addition to students and faculty, some parents were also in attendance for the assembly.

“The parents really appreciate what Amy and Tracey are doing with technology for the kids,” one of the mothers said.

Not only have Dolan and Mollock brought Hour of Code to Warwick Neck students, but the pair was also instrumental in recruiting teachers for an Hour of Code workshop in November through the Create and Collaborate professional development initiative to train teachers how to code so they can bring it back to their classrooms.

Ben said he already has an idea for a program for next year involving animation while playing music.

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