This year's Hour of Code event has long since passed, but I am still feeling its effects in my classroom and across the school. In December just before our long winter break, I held a number of HoC events in the HS, which included a couple of student after school coding hours and even introducing parents to coding. At the end of the second student event, a number of students hung around to talk about programming, what they should do if they wanted to pursue computer science in their post-secondary studies, and how they could engage in more programming . . . but in a more academic setting beyond what the HoC tutorials offer.
So the Coding Club was born right there on the spot - gestation time . . . about two minutes, tops. The students suggested it themselves and all agreed that it would be something that they would like to do and would commit to, one day a week after school. They even would take on advertising the new club and seeking out other like-minded students who wanted to engage with programming in a deeper way.
As I phased out CS in my current school a few years ago, I have not been teaching programming for the first time in about 25 years . . . and I have missed it! From talking to students, from the responses I have had for programming/CS sessions I have done at Career's Night, and from students who have graduated and gone on to study CS without having taken a single course here, I know that there is a need and hole in our program. Don't get me wrong - I still think that the new IB DP CS curriculum leaves much to be desired and is not a good fit for our school, so that is not the solution. Apparently, much of the world agrees with me as the numbers of students writing the IB DP CS exam last May with the new curriculum dropped below 1000 (worldwide) - apparently an all time low. At my school, we are looking at reforming and changing the HS program to give students more opportunities to engage with programming, computer science, the Maker movement and design. It will not only take time and energy, but will also require a change in staffing - parts of our HS program is governed by who is on staff and what they are willing and able to teach.
In the meantime, forming a club and getting students engaged in a fun yet academic setting is a good start. And it has been really fun for me. I have taken the best parts out of what I used to teach in IB DP CS and AP CS, to work with the club. Students are committed to their learning and discovery, and devote as much time towards programming as they are comfortable. There's no grades, no exams, no class notes, no big projects with due dates . . . just a lot of learning, discussion and collaborative exploration. When we first started talking about forming a club that was more academic in nature, I suggested that we could start with laying a foundation that we could build upon, which would serve them well as they got into programming with a compiled language . . . everyone enthusiastically agreed so that's where we started.
Our plan so far has been really fun - my club don't want to go home each week, and are truly apologetic when they have to miss a club meeting. What we have done so far, and where we are going, is as follows:
So the Coding Club was born right there on the spot - gestation time . . . about two minutes, tops. The students suggested it themselves and all agreed that it would be something that they would like to do and would commit to, one day a week after school. They even would take on advertising the new club and seeking out other like-minded students who wanted to engage with programming in a deeper way.
As I phased out CS in my current school a few years ago, I have not been teaching programming for the first time in about 25 years . . . and I have missed it! From talking to students, from the responses I have had for programming/CS sessions I have done at Career's Night, and from students who have graduated and gone on to study CS without having taken a single course here, I know that there is a need and hole in our program. Don't get me wrong - I still think that the new IB DP CS curriculum leaves much to be desired and is not a good fit for our school, so that is not the solution. Apparently, much of the world agrees with me as the numbers of students writing the IB DP CS exam last May with the new curriculum dropped below 1000 (worldwide) - apparently an all time low. At my school, we are looking at reforming and changing the HS program to give students more opportunities to engage with programming, computer science, the Maker movement and design. It will not only take time and energy, but will also require a change in staffing - parts of our HS program is governed by who is on staff and what they are willing and able to teach.
In the meantime, forming a club and getting students engaged in a fun yet academic setting is a good start. And it has been really fun for me. I have taken the best parts out of what I used to teach in IB DP CS and AP CS, to work with the club. Students are committed to their learning and discovery, and devote as much time towards programming as they are comfortable. There's no grades, no exams, no class notes, no big projects with due dates . . . just a lot of learning, discussion and collaborative exploration. When we first started talking about forming a club that was more academic in nature, I suggested that we could start with laying a foundation that we could build upon, which would serve them well as they got into programming with a compiled language . . . everyone enthusiastically agreed so that's where we started.
Our plan so far has been really fun - my club don't want to go home each week, and are truly apologetic when they have to miss a club meeting. What we have done so far, and where we are going, is as follows:
- Why binary?, parts of the computer, storage mediums
- Data representation, file types, how stuff works and how stuff is made
- Logic circuits, Boolean logic, simple computational logic
- Types of programming languages, how the CPU works, knob and switch computing
- 3D Animation and programming using Alice3D
- Programming in Java using Greenfoot and BlueJ
- Greeps programming competition
- CAS project - teaching MS Tech Club students programming and other content above
We are only meeting once a week for about an hour, until the end of the year, so I think this will keep us busy! It has been really energising to be teaching programming again . . . the club has shown me that I do miss working closely with this kind of student, so this really feels "right"! So, what is your school doing for teaching programming and computer science? Have you phased out IB DP CS with its move into Group 4 for experimental sciences? Are you considering offering AP CS or another course instead?
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