On Tuesday, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of K-12 teachers and administrators at the KASC Conference in Louisville. KASC has a membership of 800 school councils from around Kentucky which it helps to better serve their respective students through workshops, professional development, and information on topics like curriculum, instructional best practices, and school leadership.

When I arrived at the conference, I sat in on a talk with Mark Harrell from Project Lead The Way and a group of PLTW students from Hardin County. These students are in PLTW’s engineering curriculum, and were discussing the core pieces of that program, as well as showing off their competition robot. Their engineering instructor described the power of the program: “Our society loves high school football games. Nobody comes to cheer these kids on during a math test, but when we go to robot competitions, parents and students are screaming for their team and it feels like a Friday night.”

My presentation at the KASC Conference was on a topic we’ve shared before - How To Host An Hour of Code in Your School. In addition to referencing our Udemy course on the Hour of Code, we also put together a list of online and local resources so that teachers can direct their most-interested students to more advanced learning opportunities.

According to Code.org, 9 out of 10 schools don’t offer a single computer programming class. Our team at Awesome Inc, along with our friends at AdvanceKentucky, PLTW, Newton’s Attic, and others, are working to change this in Kentucky. If we can help with a professional development session for teachers in your school/district, Hour of Code activities for your students, or programming summer camps for your kids, let us know.