AUBURN — At Fairview Elementary School Wednesday, Jordan Withee, 12, worked with kindergarten student Cameron Hughes on a computer game.

“”We were making a ‘Star Wars’ game, trying to get BB-8 to move around and collect stuff,” said Withee, a Fairview Elementary student. “The game teaches kids how to code, the basics of coding. I liked it. It was very fun.”

The activity “made me think about becoming a computer programmer,” Withee said.

On Friday at Auburn Middle School, students participated in afternoon sessions solving puzzles on computer games including “Star Wars,” Disney’s “Frozen,” Minecraft, Legos and more. Each game introduced the basics of computer programming.

Across Auburn this week, public schools participated in a global initiative, “Hour of Code,” www.code.org, an international effort to demystify computer coding and show that anyone can learn the basics of computer programming, according to the Hour of Code website, which offers tutorials.

While computers are everywhere in schools, computer science lessons are not, said Auburn School Department Technology Integrator Carl Bucciantini.

Fewer schools teach computer science now than 10 years ago, and girls and minorities are under represented.

“Good news,” Bucciantini said. “We’re on our way to change this.”

The Hour of Code initiative has been endorsed by big names, including President Barack Obama. Major sponsors and partners include Facebook, Google, Amazon, the College Board, Disney, the Association for Computing Machinery, Apple, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Common Sense and Goldman Sachs.

At her school this week, Fairview Principal Celeste Beaudet watched as older students paired up with younger pupils.

Sixth-graders worked with kindergartners; fifth-graders with first-graders; fourth-graders with second-graders; and third-graders teamed with each other.

“Even pre-K teachers did activities,” Beaudet said.

Computer code science was introduced through puzzles.

“It really fosters problem-solving skills,” Beaudet said. “It’s logical, creative. It’s motivating to students. Students were engaged.”

Looking at iPad or laptop computer screens, students were tasked with trying to make characters move and find patterns, the building blocks of writing computer codes.

“It was nice to see older kids working with younger kids,” Beaudet said. “For some teachers, this was their very first experience doing anything with coding. I heard some say, ‘What are the next steps?’”

Adults often shy away from any suggestion of computer programming, “but the kids are really good at that. Not just boys. Everybody.”

When you click on the Hour of Code tutorials for the “Star Wars” game, there’s a message from Kathleen Kennedy, the producer of the new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Another message is from engineer Rachel Rose, who leads the animation and creature development team for the movie. Kennedy’s tutorial says every movement in the movie by “Star Wars” BB-8 is controlled by computer software.

“Computer science impacts every industry, from marketing to health care to film,” she said.

A few Auburn schools participated in Hour of Code last year. The numbers increased this year, Bucciantini said.

“This is the first year we’ve done a full-scale initiative,” he said. “It’s almost like a foreign language,” he said. “It’s reasoning and trial and error.”

The Hour of Code online tutorials break down how to follow the games. As students move a “Star Wars” character to do different tasks, in the background, they get to see what the code looks like, he said.

Educators hope Hour of Code leads to students thinking about future careers in computer programming.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com

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