Coding is, of course, a hugely important area of 21st century education. Whether they're as young as Pre-K or ready to enter college, coding is extremely relevant to almost every student's future. Thankfully, millions of educators and administrators realize the importance of teaching kids to code. Whether it's a curricular requirement or part of an informal school club, programming experiences are amazingly valuable for students. There's also plenty of options, so educators can find something without complicated or pricey features. In this section, you'll see a lot of different topics related to K-12 coding. These include features on particular STEM tools, insights on coding integration, skills students can develop and more. There's also something for teachers of all grade levels. Whether you teach the early grades or have students with the foundation to take the next step, you'll find helpful resources for teaching coding in the classroom.
According to Code.org statistics, about 90 percent of parents in the United States want their children to learn how to code. On the other hand, only 40 percent of students in K-12 schools are currently learning about computer science. Considering the huge demand for technically competent workers in today’s growing-by-the-minute IT sector, learning how to code is key.
When there are so many personal, educational robots to choose from, how can teachers be expected to decide which one is right for their students and what they are trying to accomplish in their classroom? The ‘bot they choose has to have just the right balance of fun and learning applicability. So, let’s learn about the Codeybot.
R2-D2 from Star Wars remains my personal favorite character because of its sassy personality. Since I was a little kid, I dreamed of having a robot friend. So, if I were still a kid today, I would have begged to get my hands on the Dash and Dot, the playful robots from Wonder Workshop that are revolutionizing the way introductory coding is taught.
As more and more emphasis is being placed on preparing workers primed to succeed in the 21st century workforce, it seems logical that more emphasis should be placed on helping students acquire programming skills. In over half of US states, however, computer science-related disciplines don’t count towards graduation requirements.
Here at Eduporium, we have been lucky enough to acquire our very own version of one of the most advanced robots in the world—a little bot called NAO. NAO is about two feet tall and voice activated. We’ve had it around the office for a little while now, and although we’ve seen a little of what NAO is capable of, we were eager to dive in and see some more.
COJI is a small robot designed to teach the ideas of coding to children as young as four years old by using Emoji-based commands. The idea behind this language is that faces and images are easy to understand for young children. The display screen that makes up COJI’s face depicts one emoji and the emoji-based coding language is pretty fun.
The annual Computer Science Education Week put on by Code.org serves as a yearly reminder of the importance of coding and Computer Science education in contemporary K-12 schools. Expected to be the literacy of future generations, coding has become an extremely important skill to have and creative Hour of Code projects are very helpful.
Puzzlets is a unique product designed to introduce the youngest students to problem solving and inspire curiosity through technology. The Puzzlets themselves come in a kit that connects to a Bluetooth-enabled device and create the conditions for an unusual kind of play: an interactive video game controlled by a group of physical toys.
The Raspberry Pi is a tool that I’ve become very aware of since I started working here at Eduporium: there’s one in the entryway of our office running a slideshow with company announcements and events. It’s one of the first products we show off to visitors, interviewees, and people joining our team and it is one of our most adaptable products.
Generally, when maker-minded teachers and learners hear ‘Arduino,’ they tend to think of high-level devices you build yourself, write the code for and then program it to execute whatever function it is designed to complete. If you’ve heard of littleBits, however, you know that these electronic building blocks define simplicity.
