COLUMBIA—Excited students crowded into St. Peter School’s library/computer room to participate in “Hour of Code,” an innovative international learning event sponsored by Code.org. St. Peter’s is the first Catholic school in South Carolina to host an Hour of Code workshop, which teaches children how easy, accessible and fun computer programming can be.
Armed with iPads or seated at computers, students chose from four different themes: Star Wars, Mystery Island, Frozen, and Run Marco! Then they selected blocks of code that instructed the droid what to do. Students who got stuck could hit the “Hint” button for help or select “Show Code” and English commands would pop up on the screen in JavaScript, the most widely used coding language in the world. Older students, identified by reindeer antlers, also roamed the room offering help to those who needed it.
Jennifer Priester, the technology teacher, pointed out that some of the young students haven’t even learned their multiplication tables yet, but were learning how code works.
