More than 50 million people have already signed up to participate in an Hour of Code, in celebration of Computer Science Education Week, taking place from Monday, December 8, to Sunday, December 14. Nationwide, students are being encouraged to try computer science for at least 60 minutes. And locally, that message is being reinforced, too.
The Mass Technology Leadership Council's Education Foundation has teamed up with employees from tech companies around the state to commit "Random Acts of Code." Throughout the week, participants will be asked to find as many non-techies as they can and invite them to code an Angry Birds program for Code.org with them, all with the goal of building computer science awareness.
In addition to building awareness, however, teams — which can range from one person to 10, and be comprised of individuals from multiple companies — will have the ability to win prizes in one of three categories:
The most unusual place a team or individual taught someone to code;
The most people who were taught to code at once;
The most tweets that include @masstlcef, #RandomActsofCode and the team's hashtag.
Constant Contact has already gotten in on the fun:
Here we go!! Watch out for #RandomActsofCode all week & help advance #computerscience & #STEM in our schools! @masstlcef @MarcusTgettis
— CTCTCareers (@CTCTcareers) December 8, 2014
MassTLC is also encouraging interested individuals to visit an area school and help a teacher deliver an Hour of Code, as well as sign a pledge to give every student in Massachusetts access to a computer science education.
Other ways to get involved, include:
Visiting the Microsoft stores at The Prudential Center, Burlington Mall and Natick Mall, where Hour of Code workshops will be hosted throughout the week.
Head to the Museum of Science for Computer Science Education Weekend. On Saturday, December 13, and Sunday, December 14, students will have the opportunity to create their own artistic robot, learn programming basics in online games with software engineers from Microsoft and discover how to play a piano with bananas using the power of MIT-spun MaKey MaKey.
The team behind newly acquired skills assessment company Smarterer will be welcoming non-technical individuals in to Communispace on Wednesday, December 10, from 6 to 8 p.m., for "a power hour intro to programming." Smarterer's Jim Myers, the founder of Stack Dive, will be leading a hands-on Javascript workshop alongside a slew of mentors. You can register for the free event here.
Massachusetts has more than 20,000 open computing jobs, according to Code.org. Of the nearly 1,900 schools in the state, however, only 120 teach computer science. What's more, the state is one of 25 where students cannot count computer science for credit toward high school graduation.
So, now is the time to change the dialogue and inspire the next generation of computer scientists. As President Barack Obama urged in a video kicking off Computer Science Education Week:
Don't just consume things, create things. Take an hour to learn more about the technology that touches every part of our lives. That's how you can prepare yourself with the skills you need for your future, and it's how you can help prepare our country for the future, as well.
For further inspiration, check out this post by Spark Capital General Partner Bijan Sabet. The headline says it all: "It's Computer Science Ed Week And It's Time To Do Something."
What will you be doing this week?
Image via Code.org
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