Computers are everywhere, changing every industry on the planet. But fewer than half of all schools teach computer science. Good news is, we’re on our way to change this. If you've heard about the Hour of Code before, you might know it made history. More than 100 million students have tried an Hour of Code.
With the Hour of Code, computer science has been on homepages of Google, MSN, Yahoo! and Disney. Over 100 partners have joined together to support this movement. Every Apple Store in the world has hosted an Hour of Code. President Obama wrote his first line of code as part of the campaign.
This year, BRVGS helped to make it even bigger. Our AP Computer Science courses joined in for the Hour of Code 2016. During Computer Science Education Week, December 5-11, our students conducted several Hours of Code for a variety of audiences.
Check out what our students did during the week...
- In Fluvanna, Jacob and Austin taught their peers at the high school how to animate their names using Codecademy.
- Owen also taught a Fluco high school class how to code, using Lightbot and other online activities.
- Reanna and Grace went to a Fluco 8th grade class for two days and used a popular code environment called Scratch to show them the power of programming.
- Madi, Casey, Newlin, and Sophia went to Fluvanna Middle School to teach their lesson over two days - the first day was unplugged (no computers), and the second day was “plugged”, using Play Lab.
- And Kylie, Kat, and Emily taught the hour of code to a group of Girl Scout cadets in Fluvanna County, using the Code Combat activity.
- Over at William Monroe Middle School, Callie and Grace took the hour of code into a typing class to show coding in Minecraft.
- Isaac, Ben and David went to Nathanael Greene Elementary School in Greene County and visited a 4th grade class and showed them an unplugged activity called My Robotic Friends, and then Lightbot on the computers. And they even brought in a local programming specialist as a guest speaker, to help inspire the students!
- We found Camden, Maben, and Kade in the Goochland High School library, also using the Minecraft activity with their peers.
- Madison County High School saw Alex and Harold teach the yearbook staff all about graphics and coding using Hello Processing.
- And Jason went to 3 different Orange County Public libraries to conduct 2-hour sessions for all ages, using a variety of online and offline activities. He was even joined by Elliott, a former AP CS student, who wanted to continue inspiring students!
- Sam took his hour the farthest - he traveled to Virginia Beach and taught the Bitsbox hour of code to Providence Elementary School.
The Hour of Code, organized by the nonprofit Code.org and over 100 others, is a global movement that believes the students of today are ready to learn critical skills for 21st century success.
We hope you’ll join next year’s activities and take an hour in December to learn how to code!
Lyndsey Norberg and Celene Exume are senior BRVGS students at Orange County High School. They volunteer their time teaching engineering concepts to Orange Elementary Students in an after school math and technology program under the guidance of Lisa Yager, OES TTRT.
Pictured here, Celene explains the engineering methods behind the design of a lighter weight golf club. 
Lyndsey is pictured explaining a payload in a rocket launch.
