Students at Shorecrest Preparatory in St. Petersburg are honing their skills to one day become topnotch computer programmers. They’re spending the week participating in “Hour of Code” but when the week is over, they’ll continue to build their craft.
“I think it’s really cool because no one tells you what to do and you can literally make whatever app you want," said fourth grade student Stella Defrain.
Stella Defrain is just one of many of the many students in the school learning to code. Students from kindergarten through 12th grade are delving into computer programming.
“I want to be a biomedical engineer and if I have to build a prosthetic arm, I would have to code it so that it would work with the body and function the right way,” said Shorecrest senior Alex Pray.
Computer programming is a growing field in Florida. According to code.org, more than 21,000 computing jobs are up for grabs and that’s why Shorecrest educators say they’ve got to be ahead of the curve.
“Statistics show only about 30 percent of the technology jobs in the year 2020 will be able to be filled with the students currently coming through the system," said Anna Baralt, Director of Educational Technology at Shorecrest Prep. "So if we don’t get our students coding earlier, programming and learning those problem solving skills we’re not going to be able to meet those job needs in the future.”