Wonder Woman 1984 is this Fall's most anticipated film and Microsoft is taking advantage of the hype and razzamatazz to gain attention for themed learn-to-code activities.

In case you are not a film buff, WW84: Wonder Woman 1984 is a superhero film based on the DC Comics character. The sequel to 2017's Wonder Woman it is the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe. Set in 1984, during the Cold War, the film follows Diana as she faces off against her nemesis, Maxwell Lord, and archenemy, Cheetah.

To quote from Microsoft's WW84 portal:

1984 is bold, grand, and electric. It’s an era of excess and corruption, where Wonder Woman must harness the power of technology to restore balance to the world. And Microsoft is partnering with the film to empower coders and creators of all ages to learn technology skills they can use for greater good.

Given that the Disney movies - Frozen, Star Wars and last year Moana - have been the basis for successive Hour of Code tutorials from Code.org, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft should be attempting to gain more of the limelight in this way but the choice of a movie that is rated PG 13 (Parental Guidance, some content considered unsuitable for children under the age of 13) is a bit of a mismatch with some of the activities.

The first chapter in Microsoft's WW84 portal is a Code Hunt:

Your mission: For decades, Wonder Woman’s sword and shield have been stored safely beneath the Smithsonian. Now they’re missing, and our intel suggests that the only way to find them is by tracking down a collection of codes hidden across the internet.

There are five parts to this mission and you have to unlock them as you go and you do get to explore the Smithsonian, which is a partner in this educational initiative.

Chapter 2 comprises five disparate learn-to-code lessons some suitable for the classroom, others for individual access: 

• Museum Heist
  Requiring Minecraft: Education Edition, this takes players through an in-game museum to solve puzzles to find a stolen painting, learning basic coding and game design concepts along the way.

• Chaos Maze
  Wonder Woman is in the Smithsonian Museum and she needs to collect artifacts before time runs out. Learners eight and older use block-based coding to design and code their own arcade game to play online. 

• Legendary gauntlets
  Make and code your own Wonder Woman gauntlets that light up and have sound - now this really does appeal to the 7-year-old in me. This activity requires the purchase of the Circuit Playground Express Base Kit - $29.95 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3517) which opens up loads of possibilities and the activity itself requires 25 minutes to make and 20 minutes to code.

• Decode a secret message
  There’s a secret message that needs a code-cracker to find the truth. Learn how to crack a code that reveals an Easter-egg location from Wonder Woman 1984. This is an  introductory lesson that uses Visual Code Studio and Python. It assumes zero background knowledge and is accompanied by video instructions. It ! You’ll be led through instructions to write two programs and learn about variables and functions.
  
  
• Super quiz
  Which Wonder Woman 1984 character are you? Again uses Visual Code Studio and Python to build your own quiz yourself and share it with your friends. This lesson sets out to teach the basics of Boolean commands and conditionals and claims "No prior background in computer science is needed".

Hopefully these lessons be inspiring enough to make kids and teenagers want to go forward into a future where computer science plays a big part. 

In which case Wonder Woman, Microsoft and the Smithsonian will have done a good job.

More Information

Microsoft's WW84 portal

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