An Hour of Code Reflects Our Culture of Exploration and Discovery

“Our goal, for every hour of every school day, is to provide our students with the tools to be innovators and change makers. The Hour of Code celebration is a wonderful way to showcase that commitment.” - Vicki Knickerbocker, Innovation Chair at Flint Hill

Every December schools around the world celebrate the Hour of Code, an annual global effort to expose students to computer science through programming. When the movement launched in 2013, Flint Hill students were fortunate to already have a robust computer science program in the lower, middle and upper schools. Today, many of Flint Hill’s computer science related classes are part of our Innovation Department and the Hour of Code at Flint Hill is a celebration of the exploration and discovery which happens in our classrooms everyday!

From block coding projects and the simplest robots in the Lower School to the student designed, built and programmed autonomous drones of the Upper School’s Advanced Aerial Robotics class, Flint Hill students are provided with opportunities to learn computer science skills and put design thinking and collaborative work into action. A Vale Tolpegin ’18 shared, “The ability to independently work on a project (as opposed to following a preset curriculum) and engineering a system from start to finish in a team environment was a very valuable experience. I am able to easily complete all team-based projects, and navigate ambiguous requirements.” Our students have attributed the computer science opportunities they experienced at Flint Hill to the awarding of Internships, entrance into competitive college programs and the ability to perform at a high level in academic and professional pursuits.

This year, each campus celebrated The Hour of Code with a variety of coding challenges and computer science related activities. Lower School students created projects in Scratch, a popular block-coding program for young coders. Middle School students learned computer science fun facts, tackled coding challenges, and programming students showcased physical coding projects.  Upper School students, aided by the student run Girls Who Code Club and Computer Science Instructor Blair McAvoy, were challenged with a coding scavenger hunt game and other coding activities.