By Sarah Rae

Students learning code as part of computer science week

Dec 12, 2016 | 11:00 AM

Teachers in the Living Sky School Division are integrating coding into games and classroom activities for kids as young as Grade 1 as a way to change up problem-solving.

Superintendent Jim Shevchuk said it comes as no surprise to adults how quickly kids catch on to using technology, and students are solving problems in more creative ways than ever before.

“I think we need to really celebrate that and I think if we can move away from the more traditional ways of solving problems to these new ways of solving problems, that’s what we’re really going to need in the future,” he said. “They’re doing things in a revolutionary, adaptive sort of way, and I think that’s what makes it so exciting, whether it’s Grade 1 or Grade 12.”

Shevchuk said he’s amazed by what teachers are doing to integrate computer science into everyday classes and engaging students by using what interests them in popular culture.

One of the schools he said is doing exceptional work with coding is McKitrick Community School in North Battleford. Aimee Whitbread, a teacher and the school’s technology coach, is ensuring every student at McKitrick learns the basics of coding.

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“Every kid should have the opportunity to learn code. It teaches a lot of different important lessons for the kids to know, right from the basics of problem solving and perseverance,” she said. “If we can meet them at their interest level and give them that kind of place where they can play with this and explore with this, their creativity and everything just explodes. It’s amazing.”

For Computer Science Education Week last week and continuing into this week, Whitbread has been going into every classroom at McKitrick and teaching hour-long coding introductions.

One program teaches kids to make a basic side-scrolling video game on an iPad through 10 lessons, teaching basic commands at each step. Whitbread said some of the teaching programs now don’t even require reading, so they’re accessible to English as an Additional Language students and students in Grade 1 just learning to read.

For older students, Whitbread uses a program that teaches students how to design the elements of the video game Minecraft, like cow and zombie characters, and how to make commands so they move and perform actions. She also used a Star Wars coding challenge in the school’s technology club to teach students how to create characters and make them move.

Whitbread said she also integrates coding into other lessons, like procedural writing. She said starting a lesson on procedural writing with a coding challenge gets students into a mindset of thinking step-by-step and being incredibly specific.

She said coding teaches skills essential to students’ everyday lives and is a way to prepare them for a changing career landscape.

“I have no idea what the careers are going to be like and what will exist for these kids by the time they graduate, because the jobs and careers we are preparing them for don’t even exist at this moment,” she said. “But there are so many transferable skills and truly with the problem solving and being able to go through step-by-step and figure all these things out on their own is such an important skill, and that perseverance and not giving up I think is really crucial.”

Sarah Rae is a reporter for battlefordsNOW. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae.