Computer Science Education Week was designed to honor the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. Every year, educators across the country dedicate this week to expanding computer science education opportunities for youth in schools. As part of this year's celebration during the week of December  9^th - 15^th, CODE.org kicked off a campaign that they deemed An Hour of Code, to reach as many as 10 million youth by helping demystify the complexity of coding. CODE.org is a national non-profit working to promote computer science education in every school across the country. In an effort to reach more students during CSEd Week this year, they have included an unplugged lesson for educators to use as an introduction to code without the use of any technology whatsoever. Amazingly enough, the unplugged curriculum that is now being used across the world did not come from the Silicon Valley or a Microsoft campus (though both are heavily involved in the campaign). Instead, it came from Thinkersmith, a non-profit located right here in Oregon.

Thinkersmith has written a series of  lessons that introduces computer programming skills, computational thinking, problem solving, and yes...even code, without having to turn on a computer. My Robotic Friends is just one of the lessons that provides students a hands-on opportunity to learn about writing, reading and debugging code.

In the Eugene/Springfield community, Thinkersmith is leading a local campaign to let every student in the area have the opportunity to learn code. Thinkersmith is recruiting volunteers from local businesses, college campuses and even high schools to learn the cup stacking programming lesson in order to go out into the community and teach a classroom of students. Schools and afterschool programs in the Portland Metro area are using the unplugged and online lessons to expose youth to the limitless opportunities that lay ahead in the world of technology.