“Why is coding important?”
William O. Schaefer Elementary School students are learning all things coding this week with the help of WOS Technology teacher Randi Nerkizian to celebrate Computer Science Education Week!
Nerkizian kicked off the lesson by talking with students about what coding is, how it has evolved, will continue to evolve and why it’s so important. She explained that in order for machines to function, it needs a human to give it instructions to complete specific tasks. Nerkizian asked each of her classes to say why they think coding is important and they said it challenges your mind, it helps you be a problem solver, you can learn from coding mistakes and it is another language.
After gaining some additional background on coding, second graders participated in the Hour of Code and explored coding through a variety of activities on Code.org including the class favorite: Dance Party. To play the game, students had to use blocks of code to choose a character and make them dance and move to the song of their choice. Second graders will continue working with the Hour of Code activities over the next couple of weeks before they move onto Scratch, a block-based visual programming language.