On December 11, 2025, Cinnaminson High School hosted an “Hour of Code” event in the library during lunch and seventh period. The event offered various activities ranging from the “Hour of Code” to different tables, such as binary code friendship bracelets, tarot cards, ciphers, and logic puzzles. The event was based on a national movement around coding and computer science education.

“It is just to allow a space for kids who have never had the chance to interact with coding, to be, like, exposed to it, to see that it’s something that’s not this huge, like, mystified thing,” Mrs. Riley Gartland said, a math, Honors Programming, and AP Computer Science teacher, as well as the event’s coordinator.

The Hour of Code is a national movement to introduce and expose students in grades K-12 to computer science and coding through a week of learning and various coding activities.

“I feel like the exposure to the classes, some people might not know what it is,” sophomore Reid Hobson said, “and I feel like that if we keep growing the program, it would be a good end result.”

While some students came for exposure to the courses, others came to participate in the event for the experience it offered.

“I came here because I thought it was a good experience that the school was holding. I want to be a part of it,” sophomore James Coller said.

The event allowed students to immerse themselves in the world of code, especially those who are looking to take classes in the future.

“I’m interested in taking a coding class next year, so I wanted to see what it’s like because I’ve never taken one before,” Hobson said.

Throughout the event, there were four coding activities for students, ranging in difficulty depending on the students’ comfort level with coding. There was basic coding, block coding, and even introductions to the two coding languages taught at CHS: Python and Java.

Honors Computer Programming is where students learn to code using Python. In AP Computer Science, students learn to code using Java and can take the AP exam in the spring to get credit as an Intro Computer Science class.

The skill of coding can be beneficial for students, even those who don’t intend to do something in computer science or technology-related fields in their future. It promotes deeper thinking and creative ideas, things that sometimes normal, core classes aren’t promoting as much.

“Similar to math, which I think is why there’s such a connection between the two, it teaches you how to think logically about approaching a problem,” Gartland said.

In addition to the thought process, coding is the basis of a lot of modern-day technology and life.

“The difficulty of coding is to make a simple thing, like Amazon or a TV service, run, is pretty interesting to know how to do,” sophomore Kalleigh McCoy said.

Gartland said she was happy with the turnout of the event and hopes to do it again in the future.

“[I’d] like to keep doing it during computer science education week,” Gartland said, “because I think having that exposure to it, regardless if the kids take the class or not, is something that I think is beneficial in all the different areas of careers.”