The 鈥淔orce鈥� will be on the 麻豆原创鈥檚 side when it hosts an event to teach people about computer coding.
During this year鈥檚 Hour of Code, students, faculty and staff members and the community will see exclusive 鈥淪tar Wars: The Force Awakens鈥� footage and learn about the computer coding that鈥檚 involved with sci-fi films. Then, they鈥檒l be challenged to write their own line of code using their cell phone, tablet or laptop.
Hour of Code is a national movement to bring awareness to coding. More than 100 million students created a computer code during last year鈥檚 event, which President Obama also participated in.
麻豆原创 is one of the more than 156,000 Hour of Code host sites from more than 180 countries. 麻豆原创鈥檚 event will start at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Education Complex Gym.
The event will be led by College of Education and Human Performance Assistant Professor Megan Nickels.
Prior to joining 麻豆原创, Nickels volunteered as an educator at a children鈥檚 hospital in Peoria, Ill. She saw firsthand how critically and terminally ill children such as those with cancer struggled with understanding math, so she introduced programmable robots that can be coded by the kids into her lessons.
The robots are named Dash and Dot, and they鈥檙e produced by Wonder Workshop. Children use tablets to code the behaviors of the robots, and teachers use the robots to expose children to STEM principles in a fun and interactive way.
While working on her Ph.D. in Chicago, Nickels studied how robots like Dash and Dot impacted the children鈥檚 understanding of math and overall well-being. She found that when the children were working on math with the robots, their blood pressure went down. The children also reported having less of a chemo brain or feeling foggy or forgetful while they programmed the robots.
Children from BASE Camp Children鈥檚 Cancer Foundation in Winter Park鈥攚here Nickels currently volunteers鈥攚ill be at Hour of Code to share how the robots are helping them learn.
Hour of Code is free and part of the College of Education and Human Performance’s Computer Science Education Week.