Interested in coding? Do you enjoy Star Wars? Do you want your kids to learn something new, yet fun and challenging? Disney and Code.org have joined together with a goal of teaching K-12 students the basics of coding to empower them to take this skill and build their own Star Wars game featuring Rey, BB-8, R2-D2, and more familiar faces from the Star Wars universe with free online lessons!
Code.org has a mission to teach any willing student and give them the tools to start learning about this skill called Hour of Code. More than five million students have enrolled in their learning platform and have access to all kinds of training’s, games, and educational videos to help strengthen their ability to code. With Disney joining this initiative, both companies are on a mission to expand computer science education to any child willing to learn, especially females and students of color that find themselves in the minority in this career path. Also, this isn’t the first time these companies have collaborated; last year, Disney supported this nonprofit with Anna and Elsa from Disney’s Frozen and the tutorial was completed more than 14 million times!
I could not help but jump right on the opportunity to check this out! I have many friends that code for a living and it seemed to me like it was something that I could never do, but I was surprised at the ease of the entire tutorial and it made me extremely interested in coding. You start out by being introduced to the basics of code and how it works in a short tutorial video and then given instruction to complete tasks by building your own code using blocks, or typing it out yourself — a feature I really enjoyed. As you progress in the tutorials, you have the option to add more characters, different locations, and even sounds for your droids! Once completed, you are given free reign and, with the knowledge you gained through your tutorials, you can now make your very own Star Wars game.
I can’t say enough good things about this initiative! Statistics show a definite lack in female and students of color, so it’s so great that they are pushing for an equal opportunity for everyone. I found it fun, yet challenging and addicting and couldn’t help telling everyone I know. With its accessibility, there is no reason why everyone shouldn’t jump on this opportunity. To access this fantastic tutorial and start your own journey to learning code, visit https://code.org/starwars