National Computer Science Education Week

Hour of Code Activities and Ideas

National Computer Science Education week is a week to inspire students and help them see all that computer science can offer them. It is a week to shine a spotlight on opportunity.

There are many different organizations that have released support materials for teachers and parents. To find these materials and for more about the history and importance of this week, please see the official website here.

How to Be A Part of This Celebration

When I was teaching computer science, I used this week as part of recruiting a more diverse group of students into my computer science class. I wanted to share some of these ideas with you.

A lot of what I’ve learned in my various roles supporting CS education, is that many students, parents and even some school administers that have no idea what computer science is or the difference between computer science and computer applications courses. This means that students are not aware of the power knowing computer science can be for their lives. Part of what this week is great at doing is raising awareness for everyone to understand what computer science is. Some activities I would do are as follows:

• Does your school have a news show? Ours did. Create a daily announcement for the new show to help the whole school celebrate. You can include a fact about computer science or spotlight someone famous and influential in computer science. There is a list of notable computer scientists on Wikipedia. Try to ensure that you showcase a diverse set of influential people.
• Hall duty… We all have to do it! Take advantage of that hall duty! You are out there anyway. I would use candy, particularly suckers, with facts about computer science taped to the stick. One year, I even wore my son’s Wall-E Halloween costume to grab attention. Sorry, I couldn't find a picture!
• Calling all Clubs! It isn’t just computer science clubs that can get involved. Often FBLA, DECA, and TSA have computer science branches and categories of competition. Find ways to partner with these groups to host activities such as a joint club meeting centered around an hour of code activity or involve them in a community wide computer science week event, see more on this below.
• Student Showcase Time! This event is perfect for any time of year, but why not National CS Education Week? Use this week as an opportunity to host your own student showcase for the parents of your students and other community members. Your students have been working hard on creating programs and other project. Create a night where parents can come and see their child's hard work. I was the department chair for the Career and Technical Education department, so I expanded this evening for all of the teachers within CTE to showcase their students’ work. It was a very well attended evening.
• Give a Leg Up to the Future by hosting an afterschool class for elementary or middle school students. Use your current computer science students or club students as volunteers to help you run this afterschool program. Our district had a Lego lending library so I hosted a multi-week Lego programming camp afterschool. It was a great way to show the future generation what computer science is all about before they get to high school.
• The Grand Finale: A Community CS Ed Week Event! One of my favorite things to host was a community wide computer science education week event. I choose several unplugged activities from making binary bracelets of your initials, to walking through a flow-chart maze, to acting like a robot, and many more. I set these activities up carnival style in our school common area. Each activity booth was run by current students, computer science club students, or community volunteers. There was a bingo card with each activity listed and when a kid attended a booth they would receive a stamp. Once they filled their bingo card, they were able to claim a prize for completing all of the activities. We also opened a computer lab to have kids work through computer-based Hour of Code activities. All of these activities and instructions for how to host your own Computer Science Carnival can be found here.