The nonprofit group Code.org is trying to make history by signing up 10 million people, ages 6–96, for an introductory computer science course that lasts an hour.
The event is open to schools, classrooms, employers, and anyone else who might want to send some encouragement to a group of future computer programmers. It will take place during “Computer Science Week,” Dec 9–15.
Teachers or anyone can sign up here. Any educator who signs up a class will receive 10 GB of free drop box storage as a thank you.
The organization, which has the backing of huge corporations like Microsoft and Google as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Science Teachers Association, and IEEE-CS, is trying to get educators, community organizers, and employers to serve as hosts for the movement. The goal is to get more students interested in computer science and to make the discipline more accessible to all.
Once you sign up, you should start receiving materials and reminders to ensure your event goes smoothly. The organization has a variety of hour-long tutorials from which to choose. Most will work in any Web browser, on a PC, Mac, tablet, or even smartphone. The group even has fun tutorials that require no computers if your class doesn’t have access to enough devices.
Code.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing computer programming education. The Code.org vision is that computer science should be part of the core curriculum in every school, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry, and algebra.
