Coding in Elementary School

Vanessa Wrenn, the Director of Technology in Granville County, recently tossed out the idea of introducing computer coding to the elementary students in our district.  I immediately loved the idea and wanted to get moving on the project as soon as possible.  The Instructional Technology team met and brainstormed some ideas of how to proceed: What computer coding program might we use?  Where could we pilot the program? Who would be involved?

We decided to pilot the program at one of our elementary schools.  The process would begin by pulling small groups of 6-8 students and introducing them to FREE "modules" available through Code.org.  The first group of third graders moved through the Frozen "Code with Anna and Elsa" session and it took them about 45 minutes to complete it.  They all loved it and were highly engaged.  Students had 20 tasks to complete and were provided hints throughout.  The tasks required close attention to detail, problem solving, and perseverance, often requiring trial-and-error.

I love Code.org's vision:

"Launched in 2013, Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. We believe computer science and computer programming should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry and algebra."

Here is a look at the student workspace in the Code studio:

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/blog/codeorg-releases-frozen-hour-code-tutorial

And here are some photos from our coding fun this morning...

Next up will be piloting the coding modules with other grade levels at this school.  Then I'll start up a coding club for after school students, capping the program at 15 students.  Once the after school club is piloted, I plan on pushing in with the technology teacher and introducing computer coding to her students at the end of the school year.  What better way to build capacity in a technology teacher and introduce coding to an entire population of students at one of our elementary schools?!  How exciting!!