"To prepare humanity for the next 100 years, we need more of our children to learn computer programming skills, regardless of their future profession. Along with reading and writing, the ability to program is going to define what an educated person is." Salman Khan Founder, Khan Academy
THE BEGINNING OF CODING AT BRPS
Last year we had the pleasure of starting up a 'Coding Club' for interested grade 1 and 2 students at BRPS. It was a learning experience for all of us. The students used an early programming language (LOGO) to manipulate a turtle's actions, SCRATCH JR. to experiment with commands and command sequences, and a variety of other games (Lightbot, The Foos, etc) to play and experience code in action. What we discovered was that learning about code with young learners is a lot of fun and really highlights how truly remarkable the developing brain is. Many adults today comment on how the young people in their lives understand and use technology so much better than themselves. Leading this club gave us a glimpse as to why that is. The students weren't hampered by fears of making a mistake. They eagerly shared successes and challenges with one another. Each participant was a resource in the club and they regularly picked each other's brains in order to meet challenges of their own. These students have all the time in the world at present to develop their knowledge of coding and the benefits are invaluable!
BENEFITS OF CODING
Students participating in this extra-curricular program developed many important skill sets.
- logical thinking
- problem solving
- persistance
- collaboration
- communication
THE FUTURE OF CODING AT BRPS
LINKS TO GET YOU STARTED
Try inputting this code into the turtle playground and see what happens. (Code goes into the bottom rectangle that says "Welcome to the turtle world...")
fd 50 rt 90 fd 50 rt 90 What shape did you make? fd 50 Can you change some commands to make a rectangle? rt 90 What happens if you input 45 instead of 90? fd 50 rt 90 fd = moves the turtle forward rt = turns the turtle right the angle you input (90 is a square angle) lt = " " left " " cs = clears the screen penup = lifts the pen pendown = lowers the pen to write hideturtle = makes your turtle invisible showturtle = makes the turtle reappear home = sends the turtle back to the (0,0) coordinates setx # = sets the turtles x co-ordinate to the # you input sety # = " " y " " |
BRPS recently acquired a few Dash and Dot robot kits to enhance our coding club and hands on learning for all of our Bucs.