First class coders at Oak Trace

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Sixteen third- and fourth-grade students completed the 25-hour coding program by the deadline of May 15 and earned Oak Trace Elementary School a $1,000 grant. (Photo by Lauren Quintanilla)
Sixteen third- and fourth-grade students completed the 25-hour coding program by the deadline of May 15 and earned Oak Trace Elementary School a $1,000 grant. (Photo by Lauren Quintanilla)

By Lauren Quintanilla

You’ve heard the saying “the kids of today are tomorrow’s future,” and that couldn’t be closer to the truth in Kylie Chrismond’s third- and fourth-grade Digital Citizenship class at Oak Trace Elementary School. Chrismond, the Digital Citizenship teacher, and covers topics such as online etiquette, keyboard skills and teaches children about the “footprint” they leave online.

Chrismond
Chrismond

In February, Chrismond offered a coding program to her students through an online class on Code.org. In addition, she registered the idea on DonorsChoose.org.

“It’s a website where teachers submit ideas that need funding and anyone in the world can donate money to it,” she said.

16 students completed the 25-hour program by the deadline of May 15 and earned Oak Trace a $1,000 grant. The school was given $750 for the 16 students who completed the program and an additional $250 because more than half were girls.

Chrismond plans to use the grant money to purchase a Romo Roboto for her class. It is an Apple-based product that is controlled through an iPod. It will be used to give the students hands-on coding experience.

Esterline
Esterline

Chrismond introduced the coding program during class but it was left up to each student to compete it independently. She said most students worked on it at home, during their lunch break or during recess. The program is 20 levels and each level contains six to 10 puzzles. The puzzles are designed to teach JavaScript coding which encompasses any interactive based technology.

“Kids need to be exposed to the fact that these kinds of skills are needed,” Chrismond said.

Code.org is strongly supported by people such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates who want to get more people into the field of computer science, especially women who are vastly outnumbered in the field.

Brooklyn Mirer was the first girl to complete the coding program.

“It was fun and challenging,” she said.

Maria Esterline, instructional technology coordinator for Westfield Washington Schools, said that the coding program is something they are trying to do in the other schools in the district because of the positive feedback they have received from parents and students.


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