DES MOINES, Iowa – A Des Moines Public School classroom is participating in a world-wide event to promote computer science.
The week of December 3rd through the 9th is known as Computer Science Education Week. The event is an effort to get kindergarten through 12th grade students excited to learn about coding.
Classrooms go online to participate in an hour-long activity of coding.
East High School senior Haley Young said she learned about coding a few years back when her computer science teacher introduced her to the subject.
“I like getting to create my own apps, websites, stuff and just learning all of the coding that goes into making those things,” Young said.
Young is attending Iowa State University in the fall as a computer science major. She hopes to make a career out of it one day.
East High School Computer Science Teacher Tim Walljasper said coding is a basic skill students should want to learn more about.
“I advertise to the students no matter what you are thinking after high school the world is not going to be less digital. It’s in everything. Not just if you want to be a computer programmer, but anything you want to do, like computer science, is going to touch that. Apps that we have and everything,” Walljasper said.
This year Walljasper’s class is following a theme of “movement” during computer science week. Students will create an object that can move. One example is making people dance.
East High School senior Donnie Carpenter said he will also be attending Iowa State University in the fall with a computer science major.
“I really want to go into making video games or just making apps in general,” Carpenter said.
Computer science can be found in various job fields like energy, fashion, public safety, agriculture, medicine and more.
“Don’t think of it as ‘oh this is just for people who work in a cubicle.’ It’s like any other workforce. People are collaborative, people are working hard to just make stuff. Try it out,” Walljasper said.
If you are interested in learning the basics when it comes to coding, click here.
code.org is another website that teaches people how to code.
