Brock staff, professors and students celebrated Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) from Dec 4. to 10, helping to promote computer science skills in their communities.
To prepare for CSEdWeek and the related Hour of Code challenge, the Faculty of Education’s Instructional Resource Centre (IRC) collaborated with ihub, an educational technology incubator, to host a training event at the Hamilton Campus for Brock teacher candidates and local teachers who planned to participate in the Hour of Code challenge.
“Coding in the classroom helps to develop much needed future ready skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration,” says Shannon Welbourn, Library and Media Services Supervisor for the Hamilton Campus IRC.
Brock teacher candidates contributed to 2,168,673 logged minutes of student coding in District School Board of Niagara classrooms and 25,416 logged minutes of student coding in Hamilton schools and beyond.
Brock volunteers and students from Prince of Wales S School in Thorold completed festive coding activities with students during the Concurrent Education Student Association’s (CESA) Holiday Extravaganza on Dec. 6.
“Hour of Code provides students with an opportunity to engage in critical thinking and problem solving, through the use of innovative technology and engaging challenges. The skills learned through Hour of Code are universal and can be applied in all areas of the curriculum, as well as in our increasingly digital world.” – Tayler Villamere, President of CESA and a third-year Concurrent Education J/I – History student.
Lee Martin’s experience in the classroom makes him just as passionate about the value of coding. Three years ago, he began the journey of introducing coding to the children he engages with as a teacher at Central French Immersion Public School in Grimsby.
“So far I have seen an increase in student engagement and mathematics understanding,” said Martin, who is also an instructor in the Faculty. “I have seen my students become better communicators, critical thinkers, collaborators and create the most fantastic things. I realized very quickly, that while I may have set out to teach my kids to code, what I was really doing was strengthening their abilities across all learning.”
Martin is the organizer of the annual C3 Conference, which took place on Dec. 8, 2017, at Central Public School to celebrate CSEdWeek.
With more than 800 participants, C3 is one of Canada’s largest K-8 learning and technology conferences. The event brings together students, educators, administrators and technology specialists to explore the ways coding and computational thinking can enhance learning and teaching. The conference also included coding activities throughout the day to coincide with and the DSBN’s Hour of Code challenge.
For those who want to learn more about coding, the IRC provides a range of tools and resources, from robots to unplugged coding activities, throughout the year. Welbourn demonstrates an activity set used to teach coding skills in the image above.
