As part of national Computer Science Education Week festivities, Rose-Hulman is hosting free Hour of Code sessions Thursday, December 9, to introduce youths in kindergarten through the eighth grades to computer programming – from the inside out.

This event has separate hour-long fun-filled instructional sessions for the following grades: kindergarten through third grade, 5:30-6:45 p.m., and fourth through eighth grades, 6:45-8 p.m. All sessions will be conducted in classrooms on the second floor of Rose-Hulman’s New Academic Building. (See campus map on the registration web page for directions and parking suggestions.)

Rose-Hulman students will serve as mentors to the youths attending and some of the college’s computer science professors will provide a short talk at the end to encourage participants to continue coding activities in the future.

Space is limited for each session. Reservations are required in advance through connectingwithcode.org/hourofcode. The website has details about the session locations. 

“The Hour of Code is an online activity that kids can do on their own computer any time, but it's more fun to code together. We want to invite the local community to come and code with us,” said David Fisher, PhD, professor of computer science, software engineering and mechanical engineering. He is being assisted by David Mutchler, PhD, professor of computer science and software engineering.

Each session will have activities that are appropriate and educational for that age group. This year’s featured activities include Compute It and Little Dot Adventure, which will allow students to become the computer and how simple coding techniques makes educational things possible. 

Parents are being encouraged to join in the fun during each session.

Participating youths will be encouraged to participate in a variety of future Hour of Code online activities.