RLASD Codes

2014 was Red Lion Area School District's first year attempting the Hour of Code Event which began in 2013. It is nationally recognized for a full week each December so teachers and students can use the resources provided here to try their hand at Computer Programming, more recently called "coding". Over the course of 7 school days approximately 1300 students participated in some form of coding whether it was via the Code.org website or another web based or app based coding game. Here we are 2023, working through the exponentially changing world, a pandemic and now post pandemic recovery. Everything as we know it was in flux and now we are searching for the new normal. We are not 1 to 1. This could be a completely different experience.

It is agreed that not all jobs in the future will be computer programming but it does help to promote computational thinking. This would include mathematics, logic, algorithms and teaching a new way to think about the world. (Crow, 2014) Teachers who participated grades K-12 in our district noted student engagement being high, students collaborating to work through puzzles and correcting their mistakes. Many teachers pointed out excitement and participation in students that are not easily motivated.

Crow, Dan. "Why Every Child Should Learn to Code." The Guardian. 07 Feb. 2014. Web. 03 Jan. 2015.

Students who participated in the event completed a post event survey that asked 6 questions, including their grade, school, whether they had coded before, enjoyed the activity, and would like to code again. See a rendering of their collective responses to the right in the word cloud.