Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Use code to light up a tree in our nation's capital

This holiday season you can design and customize the lights on a tree outside the White House using Google's Made with Code Lights Project. Once your code is completed you can watch your work in action. You will be able to select one of the 56 state and territory trees to display your custom light show. You will also be given a time when your tree will be lit up with your code.

The Made with Code program was created in to inspire millions of girls to learn to code and be creative and make awesome things. The holiday light project is an opportunity to see how cool coding can be in a very big way - at the White House!
Google's Official Blog states "That’s what Made with Code is about: discovering that creating something new and exciting—whether it’s a holiday tree, a video game or a driverless car—can be accomplished with the power of code."


Have your class light up a tree in Washington D.C.


Try it out as a whole class. To access this activity, go to the Google search page and click on the link or visit the Made with Code Holiday Lights website.



Invite one or two girls to experiment with the Blockly programming language to customize a light display. Have them download the animated gif of their design and share it with class or embed on a class blog or website. You can even have the whole class try it together!

You could also let students design trees in teams and then vote on the best light display. Promote your holiday tree light displays by sharing when they will be on display at the white house via class newsletters, blogs, social media or text using Remind.



Give it a try - let the kids take the lead and see what they can do!




My light display which will light up the Northern Mariana Islands Holiday Tree on 12/5 around 1:46 p.m. (PST)