Early outs can mean different things for different people. For many high schoolers, early outs mean leaving school at noon and getting lunch with people. For elementary school students, early outs mean going home earlier than usual in the afternoon. For some elementary school students however, early outs mean learning to code. The Hour of Code is a non-profit group whose goal is to introduce the basics of code to people and demystify the stereotypes associated with coding.

Hour of Code is volunteer-run so anyone can organize events. There are over 74,000 events registered across the country for Hour of Code 2017. Within our school district, the Women in STEM club organizes Hour of Code events at elementary schools. The club was started by sophomore Sarah Hoskins and is advised by Mrs. Vandersee.

Participants of the club volunteer at elementary schools during early outs. During the time, the younger kids learn block coding through code.org. The website has activities with characters from games like Minecraft or movies like Frozen. Sarah Hoskins says “Teaching younger kids how to code makes the feel really special. When they get their completion certificate at the end of the session, their face light up and they get to say, ‘I just coded that’ and that makes it so worth it to me to continue this year after year.”

Programming will soon be integrated in most fields in the future. There has long been a stigma that coding is difficult and meant for adults. Anyone can learn. Getting students started at a young age is greatly beneficial. The club is doing great work to support STEM in our community.