Mast Way Elementary School students participating in coding activities during districtwide Coding and Cocoa event. (Photo Courtesy Oyster River Cooperative School District) 
A Mast Way Elementary School student works with a Oyster River High School student during districtwide Coding and Cocoa event. (Photo Courtesy Oyster River Cooperative School District)
DURHAM – The Oyster River Cooperative School District is pleased to share that students of all grade levels recently participated in the District’s annual Coding and Cocoa event.
Coding and Cocoa is held the first week of December each year, during which students take part in Hour of Code activities and celebrate Computer Science Week.
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, students participated in coding activities based on their age group as parents, guardians, students, and community volunteers from Liberty Mutual and the Postal Naval Shipyard assisted the district’s four digital learning specialists who organized activities for their respective schools.
Elementary school students engaged in block coding activities.
At the middle school, fifth- and sixth-grade students explored block coding, and seventh- and eighth-grade students explored script coding, which included HTML and JavaScript.
More than 150 high school students participated in coding activities and the Robotics Team demonstrated their robot. Additionally, 30 high school students and members of the high school Code Runners coding club served as mentors to support elementary school classes
“Our computer programming courses at the high school are very popular classes but only a percentage of our student body can take those classes,” said Oyster River High School Digital Learning Specialist Celeste Best. “This event allows all students to try coding from simple block coding up to writing your own script and it is a great way for students to try something new in a fun and festive way.”
All participants were invited to enjoy hot cocoa after the coding activities as a reward for their efforts.
“Our students are a part of a future that will require global citizens to be innovative and adaptive problem solvers,” said Superintendent James Morse. “It was great to see students engaged and excited about learning and developing their coding skills. I would like to thank all of our students, volunteers, including our community partners, and our digital learning specialists for coordinating this interactive event to celebrate Computer Science Week.”
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