More than 100 volunteers from the SAS Young Professionals Network (YPN) led sessions at Wake Forest Elementary school for the annual week-long Hour of Code initiative during Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) to teach kids to code. Students were challenged to work in groups and navigate a Sphero robot through an obstacle course using SAS® CodeSnaps.
More than 350 students participated in the school-wide Hour of Code event at the beginning of December 2022, including Pre-K and Extended Content Standard (ECS) classes. These young coders used printed code blocks to write a program, which is scanned into the app to execute the code. The students were up and out of their seats, working together to gather requirements, assemble and test code, and fix bugs.
The SAS YPN is very excited to be partnering with SAS Corporate Social Innovation Team on this initiative and we are looking forward to making this an annual SAS volunteer event!
– Pauline Ashcraft, RQS Program Manager and SAS YPN Leader.
While SAS has been a proud partner of Wake County Public Schools bringing an Hour of Code to students during CSEdWeek since 2011, this year’s activity was highlighted by the return to in-person classroom participation, which had been missing over the past two years due to the pandemic.
SAS CodeSnaps is a unique resource because it offers opportunities for collaboration and teamwork, skills that have always been important but were put in the spotlight by the challenges remote learning presented, making this year’s activity especially valuable.
It is really a great experience to see how the kids are curious to understand how coding makes the Sphero move, change colors, and spin while making them happy with every challenge accomplished. It was a pleasure to volunteer, bringing coding experience through SAS CodeSnaps.
– Fernanda Benhami, Principal Solutions Architect
Globally, over 100 million students have participated in an Hour of Code during CSEdWeek, which serves as a call to action to inspire students in technology, STEM and computer science.
With STEM job growth expected to soar over the next decade, generating enthusiasm, engagement and opportunities for every student in every classroom to explore computer science is important. SAS is committed to inspiring the next generation of technologies. We work with partners all year to expose students to computer science.
