Some of the biggest names in the sports world are featured in Code.org’s launch video promoting its new sports-themed coding tutorial. Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, Draymond Green, Neymar, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Russell Okung, Sue Bird and others are all promoting the tutorial that is being released in conjunction with Computer Science Education Week.
The new sports-themed tutorial will help students learn how to code by creating their own basketball game. In October, the Golden State Warriors’ Green tried a preliminary version of the game while hosting a coding event at Oakland High School.
“He literally spent 10 minutes after (he designed his game), and we had to pull him away to go to a student assembly to talk to the students,” Code.org CEO Hadie Partovi told SportTechie.
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The tutorial first teaches users to use something left and right across the screen in response to swipes on a touch screen or touching the curser keys.
“You write the code for what happens when the ball bounces against the wall, what happens when the ball goes into the hoop, how many points you can score,” Partovi said. “You can have multiple balls bouncing around at the same.”
Users can customize their game with the graphics and stars of their favorite NBA or WNBA team.
In addition to the launch video, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is kicking off the event globally and using the same tutorial to create a hockey game Monday. Code.org is also opening the stock market in New York on Wednesday. Partovi said that the video will be played in Times Square 10 times per day throughout the week.
As part of the Computer Science Education week, Code.org organizes Hour of Code, an international awareness initiative that was started in 2013 in an effort to show that anybody can learn the basics of how to code and to encourage participation in the computer science field. Since its launch three years ago, people have participated in 300 million hours, according to Partovi.