Westside students share coding expertise with local dignitaries

While video and computer games capture of the interest of many young kids, the designing process that goes into them is something Angleton ISD Assistant Superintendent Adam Stephens wants to emphasize as a part of a growing computer science and engineering world.

During Computer Science Education Week, fifth-grade students at Westside Elementary took an hour of class time to meet with local dignitaries, including County Judge Matt Sebesta, Superintendent Phil Edwards and Angleton Mayor Jason Perez, to take part in coding activities.

“In order to get more students and community members excited about computer science, the national nonprofit Code.org is encouraging students to complete one hour of coding,” Stephens said. “It’s done through the lens of cute games, kind of fun, interactive activities, and it uses block-based coding, which is entry-level coding.”

The students each partnered with a community member and chose an activity to code during the event. With dancing and popular Disney-themed games, students were able to work their way through increasingly challenging levels of code.

“Once you get the hang of it, it’s kind of easy,” Perez said. He was assisted by fifth-grader Keira Cooke. The two created an avatar that performed a sequence of fun dance moves.

“Right now in Texas, we know there are 30,000 vacant computer science jobs, so whatever we can do to get kids interested and kind of prepare them for that path is our goal,” Stephens said.

All 7,000 Angleton ISD students are being asked to complete the hour of code as a part of the education week, Stephens said.

Those students who go online and complete a 10-part coding process through a district initiative called Code Front will be eligible to participate in a pizza party in January, Stephens said.

“For my mindset, it just shows them they can do more and achieve more,” Robotics Club director Katie Medina said. “This, for them, looks like a game, but in real life they can go farther and achieve careers in STEM.”

Starting early and incorporating small amounts of coding early on is beneficial to the leaning process, Medina said.

“It lets me be creative, and it’s mainly just fun,” fifth-grade student Andrew Aasletten said.

Aasletten and the county judge worked on code for a dancing game that was a few minutes long.

“This is something anyone in the world can do,” Stephens said. “We want to instill in our kids that learning is messy. It’s fun and it’s hard and you’re gonna make mistakes, and so, you know, this is something a lot of adults haven’t tried. And it’s not so much just about computer science but computational thinking.”

Facts About Computer Games

When it introduced the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, Nintendo has become a household?

Although Sony invented a lot of electronic products such as transistor radios and video recorders its best sold product of all time is a video game console?

Between 2006 and 2007 the video game industry increased with 40% having revenue of $18.8 billion in  2007?The video game console market is one of the fastest growing in consumer electronics, with more than 60 million sold in 2007.One of the markets that grows the fastest in consumer electronics is the video game console which sold more than 60 million in 2007?Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, use chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, beryllium and bromine in the manufacturing of their products? 65% of the Americans play computer games?

The average game player age is 35, while 25% of the game players are under 18, 49% are between 18-49  years old and 26 % of the game players are over 50?40 % of the game players are women while the other 60% are men?




The average number of years that a person played computer games is 13, of which the average for men is 15 and the average for women is 12?59 % of those who play computer games do it with other people in person?38 % of the households in the United States of America  own a video game console?94 % of the times when video games are bought the parents are there?63 % of the parents actually do believe that computer and video games are a good part of their children’  life?83 % of the times children received the permission from their parents to buy video games or to play computer games?72 % of the people who play  computer games believe that it’s fun for the entire family?71 % of the parents play computer games with their children because they ask them to?66 % of the parents believe that playing computer games with their children is a good way to socialize with them?50 % of the parents play  computer games with their children just to find out about the game content?75 % of the parents think that parental control on video games is a good idea?80 % of the parents decide how much time their children should play computer games?72 % of the parents decide how much time their children are allowed to surf the internet?56 % of the people who play online computer games are men?44 % of the people who play online computer games are women?