Trinity Lutheran School works to prepare students for the future, one of the many ways we are doing that is through programming and computer science lessons. This year is our first year working with Code.org and their Hour of Code program. Code.org “is a non-profit that organizes the annual Hour of Code campaign which has engaged 10% of all students in the world, and provides the leading curriculum for K-12 computer science.” At Trinity, students worked throughout April for a full month of code!

All students in K-8 spent the month learning the basics of computer programming, finishing the month out with an art project that is written using the programming language Javascript through block code. Day in and day out, students expressed how much fun they were having learning how to program Minecraft games, drawing designs, and direct a fluffball with Kodable! Other free learning resources were made available for them to explore in their free time and several students took full advantage of these. Many were able to apply the problem-solving practices they learned in their Hour of Code lessons to help them learn and progress even further in those extra-curricular learning programs through CodeAcademy.com and KhanAcademy.com.

 

In the younger classes throughout the month teachers also played programming games designed not so much to teach the coding language but to focus more on thinking and problem solving like a developer. Teachers would allow themselves to be “programmed” by the students to perform a simple task in the classroom.

Middle School students’ final project was an on-going project. They learned that coding is similar to writing a paper. There’s a first draft, and then multiple revisions to their project before they publish something that is neat, orderly, and more importantly, works properly. Even, then there’s always something you can add to your project to make it better. The final project also challenged several students in a new way. Solving some of the problems associated with programming a sketching app aren’t immediate or simple. The students were challenged to solve multiple-step problems all by themselves and were encouraged to work with a friend to help solve the REALLY complex problems. Teamwork and collaboration were essential to solving those complex problems. By the end of the month, students felt comfortable asking for help from not only Mr. Mike but also their friends and classmates.

“Coding” is a buzzword in education for the last several years. There are advertisements everywhere promoting the benefits of quitting your job, learning how to program, and then making a small fortune as a software developer. Software developers and web developers are the new social media and pop culture rockstars too. Anything Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), or Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google/Alphabet) do seem to change the world. And let’s not forget mega-corp Apple and their i-devices. Computer science is more than a passing fad. The future is in computer science and programming is the language of that future.

This year’s Month Of Code program was a great success. We cannot wait to do it again next year!


Check out some of their projects below:

Marley’s Project            MacKenzie’s Project

Anne’s Project              Donovan’s Project 

Mary’s Project              Luke’s Project