For Immediate Release

Monday, Dec. 4, 2017

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

Rockland Public Schools to Participate in Hour of Code

ROCKLAND — Superintendent Dr. Alan Cron is pleased to announce that Rockland Public Schools is participating in several computer science related activities this month to coincide with the global Hour of Code.

Hour of Code, a worldwide movement, celebrates computer science and gives students the opportunity to learn the basics of coding. The event, which started in 2013, takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week and honors the birthday of Admiral Gracy Murray Hopper – the pioneer of computing – on Dec. 9. This year, Computer Science Education week will occur from Dec. 4-10.

Rockland Public Schools has organized events surrounding Hour of Code since its inception four years ago, and this year, a number of activities will be going on throughout the district, led by Technology Integration Specialist Lisa Ryan.

“Our students look forward to Hour of Code every year,” Superintendent Cron said. “We hope that by providing a range of activities throughout December students will want to further explore computer science and coding.”

Students at Rockland High School, Rogers Middle School and Jefferson, Esten and Memorial Park Elementary Schools will participate in several Hour of Code activities:

Elementary Schools:

• First grade: Introduction to coding by learning how to sequence with drag and drop puzzle pieces and how to program characters to move in a maze.
• Second grade: Students will expand on sequencing, use loops for repeated patterns of code, and use coding blocks to tell a story in Play Lab.
• Third grade: Students will learn the fundamentals of game-based design to create a Star Wars game with events and commands.
• Fourth grade: A sandbox coding environment will be used to create an animated Google Doodle with events and commands.

Rogers Middle School:

• Grades five through eight: Students will choose from a variety of Hour of Code activities, including Minecraft, Frozen and Flappy Bird — each involves creating a game or artwork using events and commands.
• Seventh grade: Students will continue to develop their coding skills by creating several games in a program called Scratch. They will spend approximately 10 days learning to code on this platform and will apply what they have learned to create a game or project of their own to share with their classmates. Seventh graders will also spend time programming Lego Mindstorm EV3 robots to complete several challenges, such as moving an object to a specific location on a table or retrieving an object.

Rockland High School:

• Forensics classes: Students will complete a cyber security activity.
• Computer science: Students will program an Arduino (a program used to build electronic projects) with several types of sensors.
• Advanced Placement biology & Advanced Placement environmental science: Students will use Google’s create a logo activity to make a logo that relates to a current course topic.

To learn more about Hour of Code and Computer Science Education Week, please visit: csedweek.org

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