Hour of Code 2015 Star Wars Tutorial: Spare the IF Statement, Spoil the Child?

theodp writes: Teaching U.S. K-12 kids their programming fundamentals in past Hours of Code were an IF-fy Bill Gates and a LOOP-y Mark Zuckerberg. Interestingly, the new signature tutorial — Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code — created by Lucasfilm and Code.org ("in a locked room with no windows") for this December's Hour of Code, eschews both IF statements and loops. The new learn-to-code tutorial instead elects to show students "events" after they've gone through the usual move-up-down-left-right drills. With the NY Times and National Center for Women & Information Technology recently warning against putting Star Wars in the CS classroom ("Attracting more female high school students to computer science classes might be as easy as tossing out the Star Wars posters," claimed an Aug. 29th NCWIT Facebook post), the theme of the new tutorial seems an odd choice for Code.org, whose stated mission includes "increasing [CS] participation by women." But if Star Wars is, as some suggest, more aimed at boys, perhaps Code.org has something up its sleeve for girls (a la last year's Disney Princesses) with another as yet unannounced signature tutorial that it teased would be "just as HUGE" as the Star Wars one. Any guesses on what that might be?

Comments

What kind of sexist....

[Anonymous Coward]

"Attracting more female high school students to computer science classes might be as easy as tossing out the Star Wars posters,"

Excuse me, but by that warped sexist logic, just throw out the computers entirely! Replace them with stoves and dish racks!

Literal WTF

Re:What kind of sexist....

[Raseri]

I'm still amazed, and ashamed, that a gender pay gap even exists in 2015

Good thing it doesn't. That myth was busted years ago. Why are you still believing in it? Do you also believe in Santa Claus?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-hoff-sommers/wage-gap_b_2073804.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-complete-myth/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303532704579483752909957472
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2012/04/16/its-time-that-we-end-the-equal-pay-myth/

Stop parroting stupid shit just because you think it makes you look sensitive and enlightened. It doesn't. It just makes you look like an asshole with no critical thinking skills.

Holy links ...

[gstoddart]

Wow, 13 freakin' links ... like anybody reads the articles now.

Is there an actual article in there somewhere?

Re:Holy links ...

[grimmjeeper]

I'm still trying to figure out what the OP is trying to say. The summary is so disjointed it's nearly impossible to follow. Well, unless you have ADHD or.... LOOK! SQUIRREL!!!!.... hey, lets go ride bikes.

IF

[bondsbw]

if (!programLogic.Contains("if"))
{
    _isTrivial = true;
}

Re:For the Nth Time

[BarbaraHudson]

You're also not teaching someone to code if you avoid conditional logic and loops. That was true if life as well, even before computers. "If (no cars coming) cross the road. or while (timer less than 45 minutes) leave cake in oven. or while (hungry) eat. Even case statements are handy constructs.

Re:Star Wars and girls?

[sandytaru]

Yeah, I'm puzzled over this. When I was a 14 year old I fell madly in love with Star Wars. I wanted to be Princess Leia and I wanted to marry Han Solo. Cool stories don't need to be separated by arbitrary gender binaries.