I have a experience with both 3D printing and coding from being involved with my school’s STEM club. 3D printing is definitely more complex, so I’ve worked a little more closely with it with the students than I have with coding. For that reason, I chose to play around with Hour of Code for this week’s Sandbox.
With such a big push for STEM arising, my school has given us opportunities to “feature” it for a week, doing more lessons with the school’s ITS and focusing on coding closely for that week. I love that my school gives us the opportunity to weave it into our lessons, since “coding has become a new “necessary skill” for our students’ economic opportunity and social mobility” (Moen, 2016). The students are always super excited when I announce that it’s Hour of Code day, and can sit mesmerized for the full hour coding! It’s truly amazing to see the products they create. I also have HoC on my “Early Finishers” option board. It’s a very popular choice.
One thing I’ve noticed more and more over the past few years teaching is that many of my students are not good problem solvers. They seem to be more helpless than they were when I first started teaching. I’m not sure whether that stems from home life or another contributing factor, but it’s something I always strive to help them build. Coding is all about problem solving- “computational thinking—or the ability to follow a step-by-step process to solve a problem” (Snelling, 2018). Giving students opportunities to work on coding in the classroom will provide problem-solving practice and increase students’ abilities to master this skill.
While my students are always over-enthused for Hour of Code, I’ll admit I haven’t done more than tinker with it for 5-10 minutes. I took more time with it this week and am still in awe of some of the products my students have produced over the years. I played around today with creating a new Google Logo- with cats of course, and made them have a little conversation before they all started dancing. Click the link to see my final product!
Moen, M. (2016). Computer coding and literacy: Librarians lead the connection. International Literacy Association. Retrieved from https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2016/09/30/computer-coding-and-literacy-librarians-lead-the-connection
Snelling, J. (2018). Don’t stress about coding: Focus shifts to teaching problem solving not computer skills. School Library Journal. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=dont-stress-coding-focus-shifts-teaching-problem-solving-not-computer-skills
Our elementary students really love playing with Hour of Code, but I haven’t really touched the 3D printing. This was my first time really playing with Hour of Code myself and it was a lot of fun. I love your Google Logo.
Great Google logo! I’m all about puns, and these were pawsitively purrfect. I must admit that I jumped when the music kicked in, because my speakers were set too loudly, haha.
I appreciate your point about kids not being good problem solvers. I’ve noticed that they expect everything to be done quickly and easily, and don’t have the stamina for things that require sustained attention. Coding would be a great, engaging way to build those skills.
Problem solving seems to be a theme among something that is important for students to learn. I like how these coding activities incorporate problem solving into a relevant activity for students. Definitely different from any activity I would have had when I was in school. I think these type of activities that can offer the students multiple layers of lessons are so beneficial to their future. And our future because they will be taking care of us as we get older. Because of that I would prefer them to have excellent problem solving skills!
I love your Google Logo! I am right there with you and have not spent much time on Hour of Code myself. My students think it’s awesome, but I am guilty of only using it for a week or two each year because there is so much to get through!
I agree with our students not being good problem solvers. Many of my students do not want to think for themselves and ask how to solve problems and get frustrated when I tell them to read it carefully. I am excited to introduce coding to this group of students this year.
I am jealous of your school giving you so much time for integrating code with your classes! I also enjoyed the Hour of Code and may assign it to my students as a project add on.
Cool creation you made! Love the cats!
I agree that the ability to practice breaking things down and problem-solving is a huge benefit to coding practice, whether someone ever goes into computer science or not. I love that your students are so engaged with it! And the Google doodle is very cute. I could see designing a new Google doodle as a project related to historical figures, famous days of the year, etc! Maybe one of our students will win the student competition one day!
I wish that our county did more with coding. My daughter knew how to use Tinkercad for 3-D printing, but that’s only because she went to a girls’ science event at JMU when she was in middle school. Not everyone gets to do that; the event is so popular that it books up within 20 minutes of it going live! We do have a Code Ninjas in our town and all of their summer camps were packed this summer!