Local sixth grade students participate in CGCC Hour of Code Event

Sixty sixth-grade students from Humphrey Elementary School in Chandler recently visited Chandler-Gilbert Community College's computer labs, not to play computer games, but to learn how to write code for them. Hosted by CGCC computer science and business students, the project was an Hour of Code event designed to teach participants the basics of computer programming.

With the help of CGCC student coaches, the children learned how to create their own Angry Birds game using a simplified version of block coding to control the little red birds. Students had to put the codes in the right order to navigate their birds around the blocks to catch the naughty green pigs.

"The computer labs were buzzing with excitement as each student created their own Angry Birds game," said Patricia Baker, computer science faculty member at CGCC. "It was amazing to see how quickly the students became engaged and how much they enjoyed learning about coding. Our goal was to introduce the basics of computer programming to the students and hope they develop an interest to want to continue learning this field on their own."

The Hour of Code event is part of a national platform hosted by Code.org®,  a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding participation in computer science by making it available in more schools and increasing participation by women and under-represented students. Code.org's vision is that every student in every school will have the opportunity to learn computer science. More than 59 million students from 180 countries worldwide have tried the Hour of Code event.