Dorian Phillips stared intently at the computer screen as he attempted to move an Angry Bird closer to the “evil” pig using a basic computer code writing program Tuesday morning.

The Howard Elementary School third grader’s eyes lit up triumphantly once the task was finished.

Scenes like this are playing out inside schools across the world during Computer Science Education Week, which began Monday and runs through Friday.

As part of the recognition, students in Niles Community Schools will spend one hour learning about basic computer coding.

“It will introduce a bunch of kids to technology and give them a sneak peak behind the curtain,” said Ron Hein, the district’s technology projects director. “It will help kids understand if it is something they like, because, if they do, there will be a lot of computer-related jobs out there.”

Computer Science Education Week is an annual program dedicated to inspiring students grades kindergarten through 12 to take interest in computer science.

Sponsors of the program say that 1 million of the best jobs in the United States might go unfilled because only one in 10 schools teach students how to code.

So far, more than 5 million students have registered to participate in this week’s program.

“Kids today are so used to technology, but most don’t understand how it works,” Hein said. “Our goal was to show them what programming code is and how it applies to the technology they use today.”