MSUM Community Hour of Code
Hello! I’m happy to share information about our second Annual MSUM Community Hour of Code. This was a great event last year that brought in a lot of families from the community to learn about the value of computer programming fundamentals. One of the best parts, though, was seeing families working through code together and learning from the exercises on hourofcode.com.
This year’s event is again family based (ages 7 and up) and will take place on Sunday, Dec. 4, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can sign up on eventbrite here: https://hourofcodemsum.eventbrite.com
While a pizza lunch is served, we have a lightning round of inspirational speakers from the community who work in the field.
The Need
There is a huge need for these skills in the workforce currently, and it’s anticipated that we’ll have 1 million job vacancies to fill by the year 2020. Furthermore, it’s of particular importance to increase diversity in this field. From hourofcode.org:
“The fields of software, computing and computer science are plagued by tremendous underrepresentation of women, African Americans, and Hispanics. In high school, the Advanced Placement exam in Computer Science has the worst gender diversity across all courses, with 78 percent participation by men and 22 percent by women. Participation by students of color is 13 percent. These underrepresented groups represent 65 percent of the entire US population!”
Clearly, we need to start efforts to change this trend before high school.
MSUM’s Unique Family Approach
The typical format during National Hour of Code week is that teachers or experts go into the elementary/middle schools/high school classroom during the school week and have the students complete the Hour of Code tutorials. This is a great national movement. However, MSUM’s Community Hour of Code approach is different. What we like to do is invite the parent(s) along to do the Hour ofCode with their children, in a supportive group setting with mentors. It’s a family event, with a presentation by our faculty on the importance of these skills, as well as short lightning talks during lunch by MSUM alumni who work in the field. Not only do the children get exposed to the value, but the parents do as well. Understanding enables the parent to become a partner in their child’s pursuit of this incredible life/career skill, and hopefully an advocate computer science being taught along with core curriculum. If a parent doesn’t work in field, they’re often in the dark about why their child might want to pursue this, or its value.
Our Event
Our event is strategically planned for a cold December Sunday morning at 11am – a great option to get kids and siblings out of the house for the afternoon. After a brief presentation, lunch is served and everyone receives a certificate of completion at the end. We hope you’ll join us. Sign up today. In the registration please specify how many adults and children will be attending. If you have any questions please email me at alex.fogarty@mnstate.edu.
Register at: https://hourofcodemsum.eventbrite.com