<div dir="ltr">Greetings,<div><br></div><div>Coming back this year is the Hour of Code. It is backed by the nonprofit <a href="http://code.org">code.org</a> with videos and online lessons. This promotion is part of Computer Science Education Week <a href="http://csedweek.org">http://csedweek.org</a> during Dec 8-14. It might be a good starting point for Partimus to promote better use of the computers we place. The <a href="http://hourofcode.com">hourofcode.com</a> can be completed at any time, but during last year's week long promotion 15 million students took up the challenge. They are trying for 100 million students this year. I completed the lessons and think this would be a great, gentle introduction to students interested in coding.<div><br></div><div>Importantly, videos do feature female engineers Elena (an entrepreneur), Janete (Zynga), Paola (Microsoft) and of course male tech icons Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and others. Sponsors and partner nonprofits include Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the College Board. After logging in and completing the challenge it says that 49% of the participants were female and 51% were male! That sounds like quite an achievement to me given similar numbers I have seen for female participants in generally available coding challenges. San Jose is also on top of the leader board.</div><div><br></div><div>The coding examples use coding blocks (<a href="https://code.google.com/p/blockly/">https://code.google.com/p/blockly/</a>) representing javascript internally (visible from a button) to control characters from Angry Birds, and Plants vs. Zombies. This is similar to the OLPC Turtle Art activity but is run in a web browser. This is much more engaging for anyone starting out than "hello world" from a Read Eval Print Loop a.k.a. "REPL" or "command line" interface. The google demo app didn't take long to complete either. <a href="http://blockly-demo.appspot.com/static/apps/maze/index.html">http://blockly-demo.appspot.com/static/apps/maze/index.html</a></div><div><div><br></div><div>I look forward to sharing ideas for how to best make use of this international event to help our site's students and teachers.</div><div><br></div><div>Grant</div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Hadi Partovi</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hadi_partovi@code.org">hadi_partovi@code.org</a>></span><br>Date: Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 4:31 PM<br>Subject: The largest learning event in history<br>To: Grant Bowman <<a href="mailto:grantbow@partimus.org">grantbow@partimus.org</a>><br><br><br><u></u>
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<h3 style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;font-size:22px;line-height:1.2;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:200;margin:40px 0px 10px;padding:0px">Welcome to the 21st Century</h3>
<p style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px">Computer science is foundational for all students today. Yet 90% of schools don't teach it. Last December, 15 million students tried computer science in one week, thanks to educators like you! Since then, over 40 million students have tried the <a href="http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/PR8W352QHy763Pq7OIU9763fAw/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:rgb(52,142,218);margin:0px;padding:0px" target="_blank">Hour of Code</a>. </p>
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<a href="http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/oqfGDjtkuKEIYQziPhwMTg/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:rgb(52,142,218);margin:0px;padding:0px" target="_blank"><img src="http://code.org/images/fit-250/calling-teachers.png" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 100%; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></a>
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<h3 style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;font-size:22px;line-height:1.2;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:200;margin:40px 0px 10px;padding:0px">Hour of Code 2014 - let's reach 100 million students</h3>
<p style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px">Please help this grassroots, teacher-driven campaign reach 100 million students by the end of the year. <a href="http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/PR8W352QHy763Pq7OIU9763fAw/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:rgb(52,142,218);margin:0px;padding:0px" target="_blank">Sign up</a> to participate in Hour of Code 2014 during December 8-14, Computer Science Education Week.</p>
<h3 style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;font-size:22px;line-height:1.2;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:200;margin:40px 0px 10px;padding:0px">What's an Hour of Code?</h3>
<p style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px">It's an introduction to computer science designed to show that anyone can learn the basics. Code.org provides hour-long tutorials featuring Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Angry Birds, and Plants vs. Zombies — for your computer, tablet, smartphone, or with no computer at all!</p>
<h3 style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;font-size:22px;line-height:1.2;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:200;margin:40px 0px 10px;padding:0px">No experience needed from teachers and students</h3>
<p style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px">We owe it to today's students to start with one hour. Let's make history.</p>
<p style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px"><a href="http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/PR8W352QHy763Pq7OIU9763fAw/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:rgb(52,142,218);margin:0px;padding:0px" target="_blank">Sign up to participate</a>, recruit a fellow teacher, or get your whole school to join the fun!</p>
<p style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px"><strong style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;margin:0px;padding:0px">Start now at <a href="http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/PR8W352QHy763Pq7OIU9763fAw/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:rgb(52,142,218);margin:0px;padding:0px" target="_blank">http://hourofcode.com</a></strong></p>
<p style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px">Hadi Partovi
founder, Code.org</p>
<p style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6;font-weight:normal;margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px"><strong style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;margin:0px;padding:0px">P.S. Free 1-day workshops for teachers in grades K-5</strong><br style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;line-height:1.6;margin:0px;padding:0px">
We're offering free, in-person workshops in 60 cities nationwide! Get a head start on teaching computer science in elementary school with Code Studio. <a href="http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/HTRfQJ892KEULHhuUpIMAcfQ/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:rgb(52,142,218);margin:0px;padding:0px" target="_blank">Try out Code Studio</a> and <a href="http://postoffice.code.org/l/2Q4IbBT41uboQadSI3KyUA/Z0k7w46qJeMxvWfqxKNRlQ/eLk763tecZYb2kKekr70LyiA" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:rgb(52,142,218);margin:0px;padding:0px" target="_blank">Find a workshop near you</a>.</p>
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