All week, the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students at Columbus Middle School have been playing Flappy Bird, a simple computer game that combines the addictiveness of Angry Birds with the game play of Super Mario. <\/p>\n
Teachers are encouraging this, and other games like it, because the students earned it: They programmed the games. <\/p>\n
Their school is one of thousands around the world participating in the second annual Hour of Code. The event is sponsored by Code.org, a nonprofit organization seeking to introduce computer science to K-12 students. <\/p>\n
As natives to a digital world, young people grow up with computers, and much of their social lives now play out online. But as with older generations, they are largely unfamiliar with the language that builds the programs because computer science still isn't taught in many schools. <\/p>\n
When you get on a social media site, it just comes up, said Meghan Reed, a seventh-grade student. <\/p>\n
Columbus, like most districts in Montana, doesn't have the money to offer programming elective classes. But teachers hope the Hour of Code at least exposes students to a skill required for one of the fastest-growing occupations in the United States and may inspire some to learn to program on their own. <\/p>\n
Many of the middle school students have taken it up with zeal. <\/p>\n
Its easier than you think, when you start doing it, said Garrick Conner, a sixth-grader. <\/p>\n
Conner was directing a squirrel on his computer screen to travel along a path to find an acorn, giving instructions so the critter wouldn't fall off. <\/p>\n
You sort of keep adding on until you get over here, he said, and thats coding. <\/p>\n
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Read more: <\/p>\n
R&B star Usher encourages Columbus students try out computer programming<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All week, the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students at Columbus Middle School have been playing Flappy Bird, a simple computer game that combines the addictiveness of Angry Birds with the game play of Super Mario. Continue reading