Coding is, of course, a hugely important area of 21st century education. Whether they're as young as Pre-K or ready to enter college, coding is extremely relevant to almost every student's future. Thankfully, millions of educators and administrators realize the importance of teaching kids to code. Whether it's a curricular requirement or part of an informal school club, programming experiences are amazingly valuable for students. There's also plenty of options, so educators can find something without complicated or pricey features. In this section, you'll see a lot of different topics related to K-12 coding. These include features on particular STEM tools, insights on coding integration, skills students can develop and more. There's also something for teachers of all grade levels. Whether you teach the early grades or have students with the foundation to take the next step, you'll find helpful resources for teaching coding in the classroom.
Coding is truly an experience that all K-12 students can have. Starting in the early grades, students can code screen-free with a tool like the Cubetto Robot. Then, they can start to increase their coding skills and explore Blockly environments using tools like the Dash Robot, Ozobot Evo, and many others. From there, students can explore a bunch of different languages, like Snap!, Scratch, MakeCode, and more and, eventually, expand their skill sets by exploring text-based languages, like JavaScript and Python. All the while, the STEM solutions we advocate for also allow students to learn the most important coding concepts, like loops, variables, inputs, conditionals, and syntax. With a natural progression that leads to increased computer science competencies and enhanced future readiness, it's tough to understate the relevance of coding experiences in the classroom.
Since many students missed out on furthering their computer science development during the pandemic, online coding environments began booming as educators looked for alternative options to ensure they didn’t fully lose the skills they’d developed from previous experiences. One of those online coding tools is Robotify and it’s this week’s Rising Resource!
Recent updates to the Ozobot Classroom platform have seen it evolve to today’s teaching and learning. It’s completely web-based, making it easy to access and it’s very intuitive for educators without a lot of prior coding experience. Essentially, it helps simplify class setup with easy features for assigning lessons and helps generate insights on student progress.
From the Bee-Bot and Blue-Bot robots for early education coding to the incredibly effective and immersive RobotLAB VR Expeditions 2.0 kits, some of the newest STEM products on our store pack a big punch in the classroom. Head inside to learn more about these five new additions and how they can help enhance hands-on instruction.
If you’ve been searching for a straightforward guide on how to best care for EdTech, this blog is the one for you. In today’s post, we will cover Cubetto, including basics on how to get started creating a program and more for successfully using it in the classroom. Take a look as we break down how to get started using
As we get ready to begin another exciting Computer Science Education Week on Monday (Dec. 6-12), we wanted to go beyond the traditional classroom coding experiences we talk about. Besides using common platforms, like Scratch or MakeCode, we’re making our case for teaching the more complex languages, like JavaScript, Python, and HTML.
Coding experiences are worthwhile for students starting in Pre-K and kindergarten and up through high school and college. If you already have a plan for CS Ed Week, that’s great but, if you need recommendations, we have plenty of those inside, including coding tools from top STEM manufacturers, screen-free options, or those that are completely virtual.
Over the last couple months, we’ve teamed up with professionals from some of our top partners to bring educators a webinar series focused on addressing social-emotional learning and STEAM education. Throughout this time, we’ve worked with some great colleagues and, now that it’s wrapped up, we wanted to put all the resources in one place.
Valerie is an author, educator, and huge proponent for STEM education. She’s helped lead hands-on STEM experiences for students and helped expand their minds with some of her favorite STEM-related books. Whether it’s hands-on coding or stimulating creative thoughts, Valerie definitely believes in the power of collaboration and community.
To wrap up our back-to-school STEAM and SEL webinar series, we partnered with our friends from the Ozobot Education team. Led by Melissa Toohey and Tara Reynen, we discussed the importance of CS education, creating SEL connections with the Ozobot Evo, and how the Ozobot Classroom LMS helps simplify coding instruction and prep work.
DJI’s drones are great for teaching coding and piloting basics. Having long been a staple of our STEM education offerings, these drones offer unprecedented levels of excitement and a ton of educational value for students. They can literally use one tool to learn about piloting, shooting video, and coding, making the Tello EDU a great value.
