Amy Brooks (ITS) and Lawton Elementary students enjoy coding together. (Amy Brooks)
Because of the exceptional efforts of the Women in IT Community of Practice, the University of Michigan, and Thomson Reuters, elementary school students in Ann Arbor Public Schools got an introduction to coding during the 2017 Hour of Code event, November 27–December 8.
The result of their combined work:
- 80 volunteers signed up to support
- 72 volunteers assigned to classrooms
- 111 class sessions of Hour of Code reached over 2,700 elementary students
The top three schools with the most participation by student population each received a plaque made by Huron High School Project Lead the Way students and several Sphero mini robots to continue practicing their coding. The winners were: Angell Elementary, Bach Elementary, and Lawton Elementary.
The Women in IT CoP spearheaded U-M’s participation and recruited partners from LSA Information Technology, the College of Engineering, Girls Encoded, and more. The efforts of our members to have other campus units and organizations support the event enabled us to have students, staff, and faculty volunteers in classrooms all over Ann Arbor.
