More than a dozen MTCs around the globe gave students their first taste of coding by participating in a national hour of computer science instruction called the Hour of Code. The effort is part of Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 9-15), and the goal was to get kids to think, create, and have a blast -- all while learning some computer programming. This movement, organized by Code.org and supported by Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and over 100 others, is a statement that today’s generation of students are ready to learn critical skills for 21st century success. The Hour of Code events at the MTCs included tours and demonstrations of Microsoft software and devices as well as a hands-on experience for the students to code something in an hour!
![]()
| | MTC Charlotte
In Charlotte, the team spent the day at Pleasant Grove Elementary where they helped with the coding exercises for several hundred kids across all grades:
•K-1st grade used Life-Bot
•2nd grade used Angry Birds themed programming from www.code.org
•3rd-4th grade did advanced levels based on a Zombies theme.
•5th grade did abstract problems tracing graphs that required geometry. |
![]()
| | MTC Atlanta
A group of middle school students from a STEM charter schools spent the day at the Atlanta MTC including presentations in the Envisioning Center and hands on time in the Interactive Center. ![]()
|
![]()
| | MTC Dallas
10th graders from Maceo High School toured the Dallas MTC, discussed careers and colleges, and spent an hour with Microsoft professionals building some of their first video games with Microsoft Research’s Touch Develop - a multi-platform interactive scripting language. The students left with a new perspective of what it means to be a computer scientist and some are excited about this as a career opportunity. ![]()
|
![]() | | MTC Irvine
Limitless Technology Day Camp- There were 81 students (4th-9th grade) and 25 adults-volunteers with over 82 laptops all running simultaneously in 3 separate learning modules (Touch and App/Dev, Legos Robotics, Lync/Skype). The goal of the day was to show these children, who may not be exposed to these types of learning tools in their current school curriculum or at home, the LIMITLESS possibilities of what they can do & what they can aspire to be. |
![]() | | MTC Chicago
24 students from Lake View High School (the Microsoft-supported STEM school in the Chicago Public School system) built games for Windows 8.1 using Construct2, a simple gaming language from Scirra. They built first person games, platform games, and matching games, all with amazing creativity and vision. The Microsoft team was assisted by 8 college students from Tribeca Flashpoint Academy, a digital arts college in Chicago. |
![]()
| | MTC Toronto
4th grade students from Tall Pines Elementary School toured the MTC, discussed innovation and spent an hour with the MTC staff building some of their first video games with Microsoft Research’s product Touch Develop, an interactive scripting language. The students left with a new perspective of Microsoft innovation and what it means to be a computer scientist.
“It’s great to see that our investment in the MTC is not only delivering on its ROI to grow the enterprise business, but also positively impacting our citizenship and community efforts.” – Gladstone Grant, Head of Enterprise Specialist Sales, Microsoft ![]()
|
![]()
| | MTC New York
30 students from YouthSpark partners Year Up and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) came to hear about careers in technology and participate in a fun Hour of Code. The learned about the resources available through our YouthSpark initiative and the important role STEM education plays for careers in technology. Throughout the event, attendees were encouraged to participate in an online discussion for our event via the official Microsoft Citizenship Facebook and Twitter pages using the hashtag “#YouthSpark”. We had over 300+ posts using the hashtag, reaching over 200,000 people! |
![]() | | MTC São Paulo
The team ran 2 session for teens (ages 12-17) where they demonstrated the Visual Studio environment with a Tic-Tac-Toe game in C programming language, Windows Phone App Studio & Kinect controlling robots with Arduino. The students learned firsthand that programming was not as difficult as they had thought, and some said they might even like to work at Microsoft one day! |
![]()
