Wareham Middle School and the John W. Decas Elementary school furthered their students’ knowledge of computers, during the International Hour of Code week.

The week is a global initiative aimed at familiarizing students with computer coding, due to the rapid growth of and push for jobs in the science, technology, engineering, and math sectors of the economy.

Decas Elementary STEAM specialist Melissa Dionne said it is important to start the students on coding early, so they feel more comfortable, when it comes to writing actual code. The students at Decas Elementary played games that involved sending characters in certain directions, rather than writing out the strings of words, symbols, and punctuation that make up typical coding.

“It’s the beginning of programming,” Dionne said. “At this stage, they make it in a way that’s fun, and with cartoon characters they really enjoy. They can start with something simple, like a building block that just says, ‘Run’, or ‘Walk’.”

Dionne acknowledged the need for more women in the field, too, and noted that some girls in the class took to coding with gusto.

“Some of the girls are taking off with it,” Dionne said. “[They are saying] ‘This is really interesting,’ and ‘This is really fun.’”

But at the middle school, the students were actively engaged in writing code in a coding language called Python. Teacher Bonnie Lasorsa said the students had been working on creating apps for tablets since September with a grant from Verizon for $20,000.

Lasorsa said the students found the work challenging, but fun. There was also a large writing component to the months-long assignment that involved answering several questions to help the students break down the component pieces of their proposed apps.

One student in particular stood out, Lasorsa said. Andrew Govoni coded and created an app that would read typed-in sentences back to the user. The app also had pre-loaded phrases that a user could tap on to be heard aloud, such as, ‘Help,’ ‘How are you,’ and ‘Hello.’ When Govoni demonstrated the app, it did not appear to glitch, or have any missing components.

Minot Forest Elementary also participated in the Hour of Code event.