During the week of December 5th, Hingham High School students and teachers took the opportunity to participate in the annual Hour of Code. The Hour of Code, a movement geared towards educating millions of students everywhere about not just using electronic devices and playing games on them, but how to make those games or “program” them, allows students and teachers to keep up with the evolution of technology. Math teacher Ms. Baltera took her math classes to the Hour of Code because “it gives students the opportunity to realize what goes into all the computer games and programs they take for granted”.

What began as just a small introduction to computer science used to teach people of all ranges “coding” basics has turned into a worldwide effort aimed to increase computer science awareness and its expansive opportunities. The Hour of Code falls purposefully during the Computer Science Education Week in recognition of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, who served in the Navy during World War II and started her long time work with computers first in private industry and then branched off to create the first compiler for computer languages-a precursor for the Common Business Oriented Language that is widely utilized throughout the world today. If Admiral Grace Murray Hopper could code almost 60 years ago, so can you.

Most people think computer science is extremely complicated and meant only for FBI services, super scientific research, and the creation of large company manufacturers. However, with just some practice and guidance, along with patience and logic, anybody can do it. Start simple.

Hingham High School students started with the basics. After watching an introductory video about the Hour of Code, students were presented with a variety of games that questioned their coding ability first, and then proceeded to build their programs from there. One of the popular games, Flappy Birds, started off as just that: a bunch of codes transformed into a game. And here, Hingham High School students got a taste of just what lay at their fingertips in terms of technology and their creativity. Junior Evan Goddard remembers having the opportunity to do the Hour of Code two years ago as well as this year, “it had a lot of different options and ways to go about building programs that I fairly enjoyed”.

Statistically, forty percent of high schools teach computer programming; this means the majority of students are missing out on what could be a potential career. Computer science majors are currently in great demand. The United States especially has seen an influx of jobs and industries targeting computer programming and creating devices specifically to improve people’s lives. Coding does not just end here, but will continue to expand and grow as advancements in technology becomes greater and greater.