Last week, students at Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford participated in Computer Science Education Week – a program designed to expose young people to computer programming. Students from preschool through eighth grade completed coding tutorials as part of the global Hour of Code movement. They learned key programming concepts and some began learning how to program in languages such as Scratch or JavaScript.

Schechter parent Eric Goldberg, a software engineer with Priceline.com, spoke with students about the importance of coding and the opportunities available in software development.

“I think it’s important for kids to be exposed to software and start writing software at an early age because to me it is a skill like writing and reading, and it actually encompasses a lot of the other skills that they are learning in math and art. A lot of people put it off until college but there is so much they can be doing while they are children,” he said.

Members of Schechter’s technology and robotics clubs learned about what a software engineer does and how programming works. “I learned that when you search something it doesn’t just take you to it, it has to go through many stages. It is very cool how quickly it can do it,” said SSDS student Russell Van der Hulst.

Goldberg explained to students that being a software engineer is exciting because you create something using raw materials and those materials are your imagination. He noted that students can use coding as another way to communicate, whether it’s writing code for video games or publishing a website. Throughout the year, students will be continuing to learn how to code as part of the STEM initiative at Schechter.

CAP: Schechter Technology Integration Specialist Jason Kariel works with 4-year-old Mark Rogov during the school’s Computer Science Education Week.