The Keyword | Google Blog

Interest in computer science education is booming across Europe, as it is being increasingly recognized as a critical part of a student's academic preparation for the new global economy.  Yet not enough students are being given the opportunity to develop the technical skills necessary to allow them to be creators of future technological innovations. We want to do something about that. As part of our efforts to be a catalyst for developing the computer science education landscape, to encourage more school students to learn about computing, and to ensure that all of them have an opportunity to get the right skills, we participated in the European Commission's, Europe Code Week 2016, initiative, which took place Oct 15-23.

Furthermore, we provided sponsorships to organizations who ran computer science outreach events: from Albania to Austria, Greece to Germany, and Spain to Serbia and in between, we were able to support 46 organizations in 29 countries who were doing innovative, inspiring and interactive things to get students excited about computer science.

In Ireland our awardees included Crana College, who ran their "Exploring Coding" event where students participated in a week of coding and programming related workshops, with plugged and unplugged activities.  In Italy, Fondazione Mondo Digitale ran "Simple Future" a training program based on coding aimed at students aged 6-18 from schools around Rome.

In Slovenia, Šolski center Nova Gorica ran an App Development with Android; In Turkey, Robincode ran "Code Your Dreams" with multiple sessions for four days to raise awareness of programming, coding and algorithmic thinking.

You can read more about the sponsorship recipients here. In total, Google supported 25,000 students to take part in coding experiences in just one week.

Overall, during Europe Code Week 2016 an incredible 20,000 events took place inspiring hundreds of thousands of students - an absolutely incredible effort!   We hope to see the enthusiasm continue. See Code Week's events page to see all the different activities still happening, and learn more about Google's effort in computer science education at g.co/csedu.

Hi, I'm Momo, a student at the illustrious Magic Cat Academy. Heading to class this morning, I thought it would be just like any other day: learn a few new spells, drink some milk, and hang out with my awesome animal and vegetable pals. To my Halloween horror, hundreds of angry ghosts have invaded the halls of my beloved school — fur real! And now, I ask you to join me to try your hand (or paw!) at fending off these ghastly ghosts with today's Halloween Google Doodle.

With a swipe of your paw (or should I say wave of your wand), you can help turn these Halloween tricks into a real treat. But be warned, your spell casting must be quick and precise. To send these ghouls into a tailspin, you must draw the symbols that appear above the ghosts' heads on your screen. Wow! Meow!

That's not all: show your friends who's the real expurrrrrt at casting spells by sharing your score after your sorcery is complete. After all, Halloween festivities are always more fun with your full litter!