CCSD students take a crack at coding with Disney-inspired lesson

By Ed Komenda

Monday, Dec. 8, 2014 | 6 p.m.

An hour may be all it takes to spark a high school student’s interest in pursuing a coding career.

Or at least that’s the philosophy behind Code.org’s national “Hour of Code” campaign, which brought thousands of students from the Clark County School District together with others around the country to spend 60 minutes learning basic coding concepts Monday.

Code.org worked with Disney Interactive to build a free, hourlong coding tutorial based on Disney’s smash hit “Frozen.” Its aim? To inspire more kids to pursue coding careers.

Sitting in front of desktop computers in Room 118 of Eldorado High School, about 20 juniors started their hour of code at 8 a.m.

Before Monday, these students spent their first period sitting in a different classroom down the hall, learning about U.S. history. But the school-wide campaign shook up everyone’s schedule. Between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., students filled three separate Eldorado classrooms to complete their hour in shifts throughout the day.

The program aims to introduce students to the basics of how coding works without bogging them down with complex terms and language. It's meant for any age group; the Disney-inspired lesson is easy enough for a kindergartener and mostly uses puzzles to accomplish in-game goals.

With the click of a mouse, students can control whether "Frozen" characters Anna and Elsa walk forward or backward, how far they travel and at what angles they turn. The students’ choices essentially program the characters to walk over a sheet of ice and make them draw everything from basic shapes to snowflakes and snowmen.

Between the puzzles, students watch short video lectures about coding.

District officials say the “Hour of Code” is important to building the Southern Nevada workforce.

“There is a need for more students to go into computer science,” said Gia Moore, the Clark County School District’s director of magnet schools. “Hopefully it inspires them to dig deeper into coding.”

The tutorial’s designers used a "Frozen" theme in the hopes they would attract more girl coders, Moore said.

The district’s involvement comes on the heels of a recent report released by the Brookings Institute. The report, titled “Cracking the Code on STEM: A People Strategy for Nevada’s Economy,” found that jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are on a fast track for growth in Nevada's three budding business sectors: health and medical services, business and IT ecosystems and high-tech manufacturing. But Nevada just doesn't have the education programs necessary to feed an adequate talent pool.

This isn’t the first step CCSD has taken in the last few years to help remedy that problem. In the last year, the district has recruited more than 100 teachers to attend special classes on Saturdays to learn the basics of programming. A baseline knowledge of coding could help teachers better talk to students about their interests in technology, Moore said. The district is also part of anational program announced Monday that will offer introductory computer science classes to students.

And at the start of the 2015 school year, CCSD students will have more opportunities to pursue an interest in STEM careers full-time. The district plans to roll out seven new magnet programs, including a performing arts academy and a STEM academy focused on video game design and web development.

Still, like other districts across the country, CCSD offers only a limited number of seats in its magnet programs. For the 2014-15 school year, more than 16,000 students applied to just 5,724 open seats at existing magnet schools. The seven new magnet schools are expected to bring an additional 3,500 seats.

Students at Eldorado High School will participate in the coding hour for the rest of the week.