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.
If you think you’ve seen kids get excited about learning, you probably haven’t seen the full extent of excitement until you’ve seen robots make their way into the classroom. Teachers can discuss the ideas of learning with robotics with their students, but when it comes to unleashing their potential in the classroom, students won’t be able to contain themselves.
Thinking about the hottest and most useful skills that today’s students will, more than likely, need to know, the first thing that always comes to my mind is coding. Coding is everywhere in the workforce in 2016. For students in first and second grade now, however, coding will be in even more places than everywhere by the time they’re ready for job hunting.
Alarmingly, just one in 10 American schools offer regular computer science classes in their curricula. If I could pick just one word to describe that trend, it might have to be ‘disconnect.’ It doesn’t make any sense, you see, because jobs involving computer science skills are being created four or five times as fast as qualified graduates can fill them.
What can we say about principals? Tell everyone how awesome they are and how much they care about their students and their school and their community? You probably already know that. Principals, of course, play a crucial role in the success of their students based on who they bring in as teachers and the variety of afterschool programs they can offer.
For those (like me) who can’t help but feel a little bit intimidated by a tool like the Arduino, we may have found you a way to get past those fears. The DFRobot Beginner Kit combines all the power of the Arduino software with unmatched simplicity as it perfectly teaches students in grades six and up the basics of programming.
The JD Humanoid perfectly combines all the characteristics you could want in a STEM learning tool and it’s perfect for quick classroom lessons or group projects. One of three EZ-Robot models, the JD helps kids excel at learning programming basics through the simplicity built into the ez-builder software—and, trust me, it doesn’t get much easier!
The meeperBOT is a portable, mobile and intuitive robot that kids can use to learn the basic concepts of programming and robotic behavior. With the meeperBOTS app, students as young as five years old, can control the meeperBOT with a simple, handheld, on-screen remote. Head inside to learn more about it.
From Aug. 2-5 2016, we’re participating in the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) Make Learning Happen event in Syracuse, NY. We were selected as the event’s preferred vendor after spending much of the last couple of months working to create, procure and customize EdTech bundles for PK-12 students in the districts they serve.
The Raspberry Pi is a $35 computer about the size of a credit card. Its capabilities are astounding and it keeps getting more and more powerful as new models are released. What’s most impressive is the way it transforms complex projects into amazingly simple machines and helps shape future ready students through hands-on adventures.
If you’re a STEM-minded teacher and believe your students might benefit from being introduced to programming, you might be right. Students with programming skills—however basic they may be—are able to navigate a wealth of quality opportunities from internships to future employment gigs because this is one of the most important skills employers are looking for.
