CALDWELL, Idaho — The state of Idaho is encouraging people to learn about computer science and coding with computer science education week. Gov. Little kicked off the week at Syringa Middle School in Caldwell by signing a proclamation and taking part in an hour of code.
"It's a national week of celebrating the value of computer science and getting everyone to try just one hour of code," Kaitlin Maguire, the Executive Director of the STEM Action Center, said.
The activity Monday morning was designing your own Google logo, but the point of the activity was more than just making a cool logo.
"Not only is it a career path, but it's also a skill set that they can use in other activities," Joseph Grover, an engineer for Micron said.
Syringa Middle School teacher, Dr. Melyssa Fero agreed.
"Hour of code is celebrating an opportunity to have students think of themselves as problem-solvers, think of themselves as creative, develop perseverance and the ability to come up against a problem, fail spectacularly and then still walk away coming at it with a solution from a different angle," she said.
There's an increasing number of jobs for students who are interested in computer science.
"Idaho actually has one of the fastest-growing tech sectors in the nation and so in order to keep up with that growth and fill those available jobs, doing computer science education in elementary, middle and high school is incredibly important," Maguire said.
The skills you learn from computer science are becoming more and more ingrained in every job.
"My son is actually a junior at Caldwell High School and he's taking both welding and electrical engineering and he's amazed at how often there's overlap between those two disciplines, between those two independent subjects," Fero said.
Hour of code isn't just for students. Anyone can take part in the activities and learn about coding by clicking here.
