Lessons

Lesson for grades 3 -12 (10 min)

Discussion after the video: 

• • Who are some of the people that appeared in the video? Do you know any of them?

    • Possible Responses: They are famous people in the video. There are people from other countries in the video. 

  • Because of some of the people that show up in the video, how big an event is Hour of Code? How do you know?

    • Possible Responses: It’s a big event. It’s an international event. Famous people do it too. People from all over the world participate. People from all ages participate. 

Goal-Setting: 

• Have students set a goal for how many lines of code they want to write. 

Lesson for grades 3 - 12 (10 min)

Discussion before the video: 

• What are some jobs that you think are cool? 

  • Have students chat with a partner and then share out with the whole class. You may want to create a list of their responses on a whiteboard or a piece of butcher paper. 

• Follow-up discussion question: Why do you think some of these jobs are cool?

  • Have students try to describe the characteristics that make a job cool.

  • Emphasize to students that the more technology infuses our world, the more demand there is for people with the skill set to not only use the technology but to know how to make it. 

• Follow-up discussion question: What does a computer programmer do? Do you think that job could be cool? Why or Why not?

  • Students may or may not know how to answer this question and that’s fine as the purpose is to get students to think. 

  • If students don’t know the answer, give them one: “The job of a computer programmer is to tell a computer what you want it to do for you. Programmers tell a computer what to do by coding.”

Show video 

Follow-up discussion after the video : 

• The last speaker in the video said “Great coders are today’s rock stars.”  What do you think the speaker meant by that statement? 

Lesson for 6-12 (20 min)

Discussion before the video:

Focus of the Lesson: Creating code and creating programs is a different way to express creativity.

• On a whiteboard or piece of butcher paper, record student responses to the following question:

  • What are the different ways in which you create something? 

  • Possible Responses: Build or make with different materials. Color something, draw something or make art. Write words to make a story or poem or book. I can put different pieces (blocks) together to make something new. Mix ingredients to cook a food. I can put notes together to make music. Several instruments playing together at the same time can create a band. Dance routines. Football plays. Acting in theatre or in movies. 

• Say to students: Many of the jobs we see in the world today are actually people putting their creativity skills to work. 

• Follow-up discussion question: How is a computer a tool for creation? How does a computer know what to do? 

• Say to students: In order for a computer to work, you need programmers that tell it what to do. Computer programmers are creators too. As we’re watching this video, pay attention to how some of these expert coders first started learning to code. 

• Watch video.

• Wrap-up discussion question after the video: If you could tell a computer what to do, what would your first computer program be?