During the week of December 8, both the Primary and Secondary Schools of the LFNY participated in the Hour of Code, a week-long initiative to promote awareness and importance of including computer science in today’s 21st century curriculum. Coding is becoming more accessible to students, due to the evolution of programming languages: from former dense text-based tasks to current drag and drop interactions of visual command blocks, which facilitate young students’ understanding and abilities to make sense of and to perform complex coding tasks.
First Graders are learning to code with the user-friendly iPad app Kodable.
In the Primary School, all of the students were encouraged to participate in a large-scale binary decoding exercise that revealed a picture of a lynx, our school mascot. A variety of other coding activities were created to activate the minds of students throughout the Lycée. CM2, CE2, and CE1 students worked with block based command codes to create games and digital drawings. CM1 students used the binary code to encode and decode written messages, and CP students reinforced their directional skills using an app called Kodable.
@LyceeFrancaisNY the Primary students decoded the binary image for #hourofcode What a collaborative effort @sfreland pic.twitter.com/j2H3bcZmca
— Young Kim (@birdsatflight) December 12, 2014
In the Secondary School, 6ème students chose activities from among LightBot, Angry Birds, and Scratch tutorials. In 5ème, students chose from among Khan Academy, Codecademy, and Scratch tutorials. All of the tutorials were designed to teach foundational coding skills and to inspire students to continue to study computer science.
The students also learned about people who made significant contributions to modern technology. Women, such as Grace Hopper, from the U.S. Navy, who developed one of the first computer programming languages , and Brina, a programmer for Instagram, who learned to code despite experiencing some early challenges, were highlighted as models in a previously male-dominated field.
Since last year’s Hour of Code, extracurricular activities have been developed to augment computer science instruction at the Lycée. Code Stars and Scratch Club are offered in the Primary School. Intermediate Computer Programming Club, Computer & Website Architecture, and Java Study Group are offered in the Secondary School. Beginning in January, the Lycée will be offering 3D Printing in the Secondary and Scratch Jr. Club in the Primary.
Y6, Y7 and Y8 students participating in the Hour of Code in the Computer Lab room.
In the new 3D Printing club, I will be guiding the students through the creative process in designing retro and inventive toys. These programs allow students from Y1-Y9 to participate in computer science. As technology and digital learning advance in our daily lives, our role as educators is to assist the young ones to use it to make a positive and productive impact on their educational career.
On the same topic: The top 3 reasons we teach code at the LFNY?
Video by Sébastien Freland.
About the Author :
Young Kim teaches technology classes to the primary grades and help teachers utilize the technology in the classrooms to fit their curricular needs. Before joining the LFNY in 2013, he taught primary and secondary art in Philadelphia for 6 years. He is originally from Korea and enjoy doing pottery and other fine arts and play video games when he gets the chance.