The Hour of Code

We live in a world surrounded by technology; therefore, we know that whatever field our children choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly hinge on understanding how technology works. Unfortunately, only a small fraction of students are learning computer science in schools around the world, and even fewer students are studying it now (compared to a decade ago). Here at Sela, we are working to change that statistic.

It is for this reason that our entire school joined one of the largest STEM learning events in history: The Hour of Code, during Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 7-13). More than 100 million students worldwide have participated in this program in the past. This year 191,871 schools around the globe - including Sela - have already signed up to partipate this week.

Over the past two days, students participated in the Hour of Code. They learned about the work of a programmer, the language of coding, and developing sequences - which are essentially a list of codes to program a device or an application. Students had the opportunity to practice these concepts with and without technology. As an "unplugged" activitity, each student wrote code on paper in order to program their robot (i.e., another classmate), and visa versa. For their "plugged" activity, students engaged in online coding programs. Please check out some of these applications here. These activities are free and can be accessed 24/7. We encourage you to continue at home!

It is our hope that through participation in this event, we will make a strong statement that Sela is ready to teach our students critical 21st century skills. We are also hopeful that participating in the Hour of Code will spark further interest in our students to keep learning more in the field of Computer Science. Research has shown that children pick up programming concepts before they know how to read and write. In fact, their brains are more receptive to computer languages at a young age, just like foreign languages. "The Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that computer science is not rocket-science, anybody can learn the basics," said Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO

of Code.org. Partovi stated, "Over 100 million students worldwide have tried an Hour of Code. The demand for relevant 21st century computer science education crosses all borders and knows no boundaries."

At Sela, we will continue to provide our student global citizens with opportunities to access technology, ensuring that our students will be on the forefront - not just consuming technology of the future, but creating it.