One volunteer’s quest to bring Tech Education to a local elementary school. How Nipsey Hussle inspired the whole story.

 

It all started with a cold call from a young man named Sylvester who was looking to hire a tech education company to come teach at a south Los Angeles elementary school. After chatting we discovered that this lovely person was not the principal, nor a teacher, nor the PTA president, nor a parent at the school…just a volunteer!

Sylvester was inspired by musician, community activist, and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle after he was fatally shot outside his Marathon Clothing store earlier this year. Nipsey was a huge advocate for kids in his south Los Angeles neighborhood. Soon after, Sylvester reached out to 59th Street Elementary School, where he started volunteering and bringing that same enthusiasm to the kids by trying to expose them to many important things including tech education. 

 

This is where Digital Dragon comes in. We decided to work with Sylvester and the team of educators at 59th Street Elementary to hold a Coding Day, where we hosted groups of classes throughout the day for an hour at a time.

 

Students learning to code

First lesson, in the vein of Hour of Code, we introduced them to coding concepts. They learned the basic principles of programming by using a drag and drop learning tool. While some students had never seen the program before they leveled up very quickly! 

 

Minecraft underwater maze, hour of code, students learning to code

The best part of teaching coding to younger students, is you get to start with a system that is also entertaining to them. We chose an underwater game in the world of Minecraft from Code.org. The objective was to complete missions, by coding your character to move through mazes.

 

Students excited to learn to code.

Kids asked tons of questions, were eager to get started, loved the challenge, and felt empowered by learning a new language. 

 

Student thank you notes for teaching code.

They even sent the cutest thank you notes after!

If you would like more information on how to bring a Coding Day or longer elective classes to your school,  or if you would like to help sponsor or contribute to bringing more tech education to the students at 59th Street Elementary, you can reach out to us @ info@digitaldragon.co or 424-280-4654.