On Tuesday, December 4, Arapahoe High School held its first ever Hour of Code as a part of national Computer Science Education Week.

    Hour of Code or Code.org is a global organization that reaches students in over 180 countries. What started as a simple one-hour introduction to coding has grown into a worldwide celebration of code. This year, Arapahoe hosted one of the 213,130 registered Hour of Code events. Its goal? To get people, kids and adults alike, interested in the future of computer science.

    “There isn’t really any job anymore that is not going to need the thought process and the problem solving that coding provides,” says Ms. Bownds, the computer science teacher at AHS. “There isn’t any aspect of our lives that isn’t touched by coding.”

    As Ms. Bownds mentioned, learning the skills that go along with coding is crucial to our 21st-century society. According to Code.org, 58% of all new STEM jobs are in computing. They’re also the #1 source for new wages in the US, yet only 8% of STEM graduates have degrees in computer science. This could be attributed to the fact that only 35% of high schools teach computer science courses. Not only that, but the tech field still faces major inequality when it comes to diversity in gender, race, and background. In fact, a mere 25% of CS students in high school, college, and employed in the tech field are women.

    That’s what Code.org aims to change through projects like Hour of Code.

    “Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that computer science is not rocket science-anybody can learn the basics,” says Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org. “Over 100 million students worldwide have tried an Hour of Code. The demand for relevant 21st-century computer science education crosses all borders and knows no boundaries.”

    Luckily, Arapahoe was able to provide an opportunity and be a part of this change last week.

    “It [Hour of Code] went so beyond our anticipation and expectations- it was so exciting,” says Bownds. “I thought we might have 50 families show up. Instead, we had over 150 families and 300 students. It turned out to be a fantastic family opportunity for our school district.”

    While Computer Science Education week is over, the chance to get involved with computer science and STEM immersion is year round!

For more information on Hour of Code and Code.org, click the links below:

Hour of Code

Code.org