Students as young as eight will be able to create characters and write computer code in a program offered through 4-H.
The older elementary school and junior high students will be able to write the computer code to design a dancing character of their choosing. Next, they’ll be able to animate a character to do the famous chicken dance.
The National 4-H program is partnering with local 4-H programs to offer Code Your World, a computer programming class offered at the county libraries throughout October.
The program is meant to supplement the STEM lessons that students may get in school and is being used as a way for the Johnson County 4-H program to reach students who may not have had exposure to 4-H and to help teach county students critical thinking skills, said Heather Dougherty, extension educator for 4-H Youth Development.
“We want to open it up and communicate to other youth that 4-H is not completing a project and exhibiting at the fair,” she said.
4-H groups across the country will be using the same curriculum and programs to do the same lessons as part of the 4-H created National Science Day. Each of the four lessons is open to students ages 8 to 14, Dougherty said.
The lessons revolve around students learning to write computer code using programs and curriculum provided by the national chapter. For example, in the first lesson, students will learn to create a character and make it dance. In the second lesson, students will deconstruct the Chicken Dance and learn how to write code to make a character do the dance, she said.
Students can attend individual classes or can attend all the classes, said Tiffany Wilson, manager of the Franklin branch of the Johnson County Public Library.
They will use the library’s iPads and the programming fits into part of the library’s mission to offer science, technology, engineering, art and math programs for local students, she said.
“We like to get kids more interested in computer science at a younger age,” she said. “There is kind of a push for it in education as well,” she said.
The library has a committee that works to make sure the library is offering enough programming to students across the county. The 4-H program was a good fit for a partnership, Wilson said.
“It was just something we are trying to do at the library,” she said. “It was a win-win for both of us.”
4-H leaders also wanted to get involved in offering additional programming after surveys taken at the fair showed that students only equate 4-H with showing projects at the fair, Dougherty said.
Leaders also wanted a way for students to learn about 4-H outside of the fair. And offering STEM programming also helps students with critical thinking skills, she said.
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What: Code Your World
When: 4 p.m. Oct. 19 Franklin library, 401 State St.;
6:30 p.m. Oct. 22, Trafalgar library, 424 S. Tower St.;
4 p.m. Oct. 23, Clark-Pleasant library, 530 Tracy Road, Whiteland;
4 p.m. Oct. 29, White River library, 1664 Library Blvd., Greenwood.
Register at pageafterpage.org/programs.
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