Children from the Thomas House Family Shelter in Garden Grove are learning coding from from a group of high school and college student volunteers.
The Orange County Register chronicled this week a recent lesson run by the volunteer team from Open Sesame Coding for Kids, where they worked with children from transitional shelter.
The Register described how the youngsters are learning how to use coding to get a digital “Angry Bird” over to a “Naughty Pig” as part of a computer game. The volunteers teach the children how to assemble blocks of coding to make the characters turn left, turn right, move forward and so on — to create the correct path on the grid.
The volunteers include students from University High in Irvine, Troy High in Fullerton, and UC Irvine.
Open Sesame Coding for Kids project supplied Chromebooks for the children, as young as age 5, to work on their coding skills.
Thomas House executive director Natalie Julien told the Register, “When they approached us, it was kind of a no-brainer.”
Open Sesame Coding for Kids grew out of an idea from high school students Katherine McPhie and Milan Narula.
Here are some other education articles from throughout the region for the week ending Nov. 16.
- A team of students from six high schools in Irvine Unified and one in Tustin Unified have worked to successfully launch a satellite into outer space.
- There’s still time for educators and industry leaders to be part of the fourth annual OC Pathways Showcase, which will take place at the Edwards Lifesciences campus on Tuesday, Nov. 27.
- Ladera Vista Junior High School of the Arts and Orange County School of the Arts have been named Exemplary Schools by the Arts School Network, a national prize for K-12 schools, colleges and universities that go above and beyond in promoting quality in arts education.
- In its first look at the fiscal year starting July 1, 2019, the Legislative Analyst’s Office is forecasting a $2.4 billion funding increase under Proposition 98, the formula that determines the minimum amount of state revenue for K-14 education.
- State Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, has maintained his lead over Marshall Tuck in the contest for California’s state superintendent of public instruction based on the ongoing tallying of millions of uncounted ballots.
- Costa Mesa students beamed Wednesday as law enforcement officers handed them weighty turkeys and hard-earned pumpkin pies as rewards for their improved academic performance and classroom behavior.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with our local education coverage by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates or following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.