Published On: December 15th, 2019By

Aldine ISD Wraps Up Hour of Code Activities

Primary, elementary, and middle school students across the District showcased coding skills. Additionally, middle school students visited Apple and Microsoft stores for activities.

Conley Elementary School Coding Club members teach computer skills to fellow students.


Between December 2 through December 14, Aldine ISD took part in Hour of Code to promote digital literacy education by teaching and exposing students to the basics of code and computational thinking.

“Computational thinking applies to all fields of work,” said Superintendent LaTonya M. Goffney. “As we move further into the future, more people will be doing work that requires individual decision-making and problem-solving. Our job is to help students develop those skills.”

The plugged and unplugged lessons taught students the fundamentals of computer science. The students at 67 schools across Aldie ISD enjoyed themselves as their eyes were glued to their computer screens as they played games, created binary code bracelets, followed graph paper programming activities, and worked on cup stacking codes. They also watched in awe at rolling Spheros controlled by a tablet.

During the week of December 9, middle school students visited the Apple and Microsoft stores located in The Woodlands Mall and Willowbrook Mall to engage in programming activities. The Microsoft Store, in partnership with Deaf Kids Code, welcomed students of all abilities to participate in workshops for Computer Science in Education Week. Deaf students from Ogden Elementary School took part in a workshop with Tynker Coding challenges. Additionally, they took part in a live streaming event with Nadmi Casiano. Ms. Casiano was the very first deaf person to receive a degree in aeronautics. Students submitted questions directly to Casiano, who discussed the challenges while earning her degree, but more importantly, how she overcame those challenges.

This year, the focus celebrated AISD Girls Who Code Clubs. Forty-two female students from seven campuses (Anderson Academy, Black Elementary, Reed Academy, Stovall Middle School, Grantham Academy, Teague Middle School, and Aldine Middle School) attended a special event at Microsoft in The Woodlands Mall. The young ladies rotated through three sessions focused on coding their own video game, Minecraft collaboration challenge, and preventing cyberbullying. The experience allowed the students to interact with other female coders and learn new things about technology, programming, and how to uplift themselves and each other.

The goal of Hour of Code and Computer Education Week is to encourage students to have fun with coding and inspire them to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers. There are more than 500,000 computing jobs open nationwide, but last year only 42,969 computer science students who graduated from college into the workforce.

About the Author: Leticia Fehling

Director of Internal Communications