In today's society, computers are everywhere! Given the wide-spread nature of computers, it is extremely important for students to gain an understanding of the devices they use everyday.

Some teachers and companies have taken the initiative to incorporate coding into the classroom. In the video below, Code.org co-founder Ali Partovi outlines the importance of teaching everyone to code. Partovi presents two main arguments for teaching computer science and coding to all students.

Firstly, coding has become a fundamental skill that students need. Coding has become similar to reading, writing, and arithmetic as coding is now a basic skill all students need in order to succeed. Coding teaches students about logic and problem solving, more commonly known as computational thinking. In an article about computational thinking, Jeannette Wing (2006) outlines what computational thinking entails and how it can be applied to other disciplines. The basic premise is teaching students how to simplify problems by recognizing patterns and creating small, manageable steps. This type of thinking can be applied to many disciplines.

Finally, coding promotes creativity. Partovi likens computers and programming software to paints and paper. There is no limit to what students can create with computer programming. With coding as a skill, students will be able to create any kind of app or program they can dream. Coding can then be used to help foster creativity in approaches to problem solving.

Additionally, it has been shown that programming helps students develop persistence. Stenger (2017) states that students will learn persistence through coding. More often than not, the code will not work on the first try. Through coding, students learn not to give up and continue trying different methods of problem solving until the code works.

As an future math and science educator, I spent sometime investigating the Hour of Code and how I could implement in the classroom. My motivation for finding Hour of Code activities is to help students develop computational thinking and promote creativity in problem solving.

I first investigated Coding Mathematical Models from Code.org. The image in the top right is my completion certificate. I found this activity to be well suited the the grade 11 advanced functions course. The advanced functions course has students analyze a wide range of functions. This particular activity could be used periodically throughout the semester as a tool to have students review the properties of functions they have learned or preemptively investigate functions before they fully understand them.

Another possible usage of the Hour of Code is the solar system model by Tynker presented below. This activity can be incorporated into the grade 9 science astronomy unit. In the astronomy unit, students investigate the formation of the solar system and the properties of the planets. The Tynker activity can be used as a review activity for students after they have learned more about the solar system.

I also think it would be interesting to introduce a more open-ended coding activity. After some digging, I discovered that Brock University has been offering some classes that combine math and coding (Buteau & Muller, 2019). These courses incorporate labs where students learn to create basic programs (like a program that determines if an integer is prime) which eventually leads to a programming-based math project where students use the knowledge they have developed to model a pure math concept or solve a problem of their choice. I believe this could be a novel way of incorporating a coding based Genius Hour project into the physics or math curriculum. I envision this as students selecting a concept presented in the course and developing a program to display it as a culminating assignment.

Any of these activities or projects could be combined with a video such as the What do programmers actually do? video presented on the side. A video such as this can highlight how programming is essentially solving a puzzle and show students potential careers that involve coding.