Students from Knox County Schools, Oak Ridge City Schools, and area private schools will try to break the world record for the number of students learning how to code at the same time.
The students will make the attempt at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, November 8. In Oak Ridge, the attempt will occur throughout the district in the classrooms of teachers who choose to participate.
The idea to attempt a Guinness World Record came from Brandon Bruce, co-founder and chief operating officer of Cirrus Insight, and Caleb Fristoe, project manager of CodeTN—a Great Schools Partnership initiative that organizes coding clubs, camps, and competitions at area schools, a press release said. The effort is heavily supported by Knox County Schools and its Educational Technology and Information Technology departments, the release said.
“Amazing things are happening in Knoxville and Oak Ridge in technology and education,” Bruce said. “Attempting the Guinness World Record for the number of students learning how to code at the same time will help shine a light on the everyday great work of our students, parents, teachers, and principals. Keep an eye on East Tennessee for big successes in education and technology.”
About 67 percent of new jobs in STEM are in computing, which is the largest and fastest growing source of new wages in the U.S., with 500,000 jobs currently available, the press release said. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
“Computer science will provide the blue-collar work of the future, and by starting today, we can equip our students with the necessary skills to compete for those jobs,” Fristoe said.
During the world record attempt, all students will learn how to code using Scratch, a web application developed by MIT.
The existing Guinness World Record in this category is about 1,000 students. Knox County Schools and others are currently signing up students to participate in this regional event. Classroom volunteers are being recruited through Volunteer Knoxville and local Parent Teacher Associations (PTA), the press release said.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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