Hour of Code is upon us but, you may ask, what’s really in it for the kids? Is it just programming, learning the basics and getting to grips with a future industry? Well, no. They can win the Young Person of the Year award, too, if done right.
Over the weekend, Aoibheann Mangan and Padraic Godwin (eight and nine years of age, respectively) picked up the now-joint Young Person of the Year Award for 2015.
The preceding 12 months saw them sit down for Hour of Code last winter, think about how to put their new-found skills into action, create a farm safety website and, generally speaking, rock.
@tuamarchdiocese well done to Aoibheann and Padraic from @ScoilAnClochain on their people of the year award pic.twitter.com/m0bziRqBi0
— Iseult Mangan (@IseultMangan) December 6, 2015
Pupils at 14-student Cloghan’s Hill National School on the Mayo-Galway border, Mangan and Godwin created www.farmsafety4kids.net a while back “because there is no farm safety websites aimed at children out there and there has been a scary increase in farming accidents and deaths in recent years”.
Last yrs #HourOfCode was our starter in the world of coding+web skills message to every kid in Ireland U can do it too #PeopleoftheYear
— FarmSafety4Kids (@FarmSafety4Kid) December 6, 2015
The fatality rate in agriculture is far higher than any other economic sector. Of the 193 people killed on Irish farms between 2005 and 2014, 22 were children.
“We are trying to get every child to […] examine how [to] identify dangers on the farm, dangers to them and dangers to others,” according to the brilliant duo’s website.
Sooo tired this morning promise to reply to every1 for all the amazing messages soon! pic.twitter.com/KUSbsJTKW0
— FarmSafety4Kids (@FarmSafety4Kid) December 6, 2015
Hour of Code starts this morning, after being officially launched last week by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
The Digital Youth Council are, of course, heavily involved this year – founder and director Harry McCann kicking off this week’s coding festivities with Kenny, himself.
Thanks @EndaKennyTD for sitting down with me at the Hour Code Launch to talk about why Coding is important! #DYCIRL pic.twitter.com/evTjaxxmJK
— Harry McCann (@TheHarryMcC) December 3, 2015
So Hour of Code is not just a thrifty education platform, it turns out there’s a direct route to achievement, too!
Main image of child on a tablet, via Shutterstock
