The Hour of Code campaign is designed to help demystify computer programming and increase participation in computer science courses by more girls and students of color. The event takes place the week of December 9-15 and has attracted nearly 30,000 event registrations representing over 4.2 million student participants worldwide, with over 5 million students projected to participate. This project will raise awareness of the need to increase computer science opportunities for all students.
Not enough students are studying computer science to fill all the projected jobs. Females and students of color are particularly underrepresented. Demystifying computer science and providing access to educational opportunities will put more students on the path to computer science education and jobs.
This campaign will show participants that you don't have to be a genius to learn how to program and it will highlight the creative nature of computer science. Anyone can learn to code.
K-12 students who study computer science are much more likely than students who don't have access during K-12 to go on to earn college degrees in the field. These degrees are among the highest paying and most secure jobs in the world. These jobs also provide a 4.3x multiplier for neighborhood jobs. In all this is a $500 billion opportunity for the US.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
