Hour of Code is an annual event, and part of Computer Science Education Week from December 7 – 13, 2015.
Participate in Hour of Code whether you’re an adult or a child. Today (Friday, December 4) is the last day to sign up to win prizes for yourself, classroom or school. Don’t be intimidated even if you’ve never done any programming before. There are a number of resources that you can use. The platforms mentioned are available all year round but many of them have put on special activities for hour of code. Even if you participated in Hour of Code last year, there are a bunch of new and exciting tools that you can use. For example, Code Studio has recently added in an activity where you can code through Minecraft. There are also two Star Wars options where you can build a galaxy with code!
For all ages
- Code Studio – http://studio.code.org/ (multi-platform)
- Lightbot – https://lightbot.com/hour-of-code-2015.html (multi-platform)
- Tynker – http://www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/ (tablets only)
- Made with Code from Google – https://www.madewithcode.com/projects (multi-platform)
- Blockly Games – https://blockly-games.appspot.com/ (multi-platform)
Lower Elementary
- Tynker on Brainpop – https://www.brainpop.com/games/tynkerpuppyadventure/ (laptop only)
Upper elementary (Grades 3+)
- Scratch – http://scratch.mit.edu/hoc/ (laptop only)
- Code Academy – https://www.codecademy.com/hour-of-code (laptop only)
- Turtle Academy – http://turtleacademy.com/ (multi-platform, but best on laptop)
- Gamestar Mechanic – http://gamestarmechanic.com/ (laptop only)
- Bitsbox Hour of Code – https://bitsbox.com/hoc2015.html (best on laptop)
In Apple stores in the US, and around the world, people aged 6 and over can participate in an Hour of Code event in person. See the schedule here.
Interested in learning more about Hour of Code from a teacher’s perspective? Check out this webinar from Brainpop. Many of their computer science resources are free this week.