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.
Alarmingly, just one in 10 American schools offer regular computer science classes in their curricula. If I could pick just one word to describe that trend, it might have to be ‘disconnect.’ It doesn’t make any sense, you see, because jobs involving computer science skills are being created four or five times as fast as qualified graduates can fill them.
What can we say about principals? Tell everyone how awesome they are and how much they care about their students and their school and their community? You probably already know that. Principals, of course, play a crucial role in the success of their students based on who they bring in as teachers and the variety of afterschool programs they can
For those (like me) who can’t help but feel a little bit intimidated by a tool like the Arduino, we may have found you a way to get past those fears. The DFRobot Beginner Kit combines all the power of the Arduino software with unmatched simplicity as it perfectly teaches students in grades six and up the basics of programming.
The JD Humanoid perfectly combines all the characteristics you could want in a STEM learning tool and it’s perfect for quick classroom lessons or group projects. One of three EZ-Robot models, the JD helps kids excel at learning programming basics through the simplicity built into the ez-builder software—and, trust me, it doesn’t get much easier!
The meeperBOT is a portable, mobile and intuitive robot that kids can use to learn the basic concepts of programming and robotic behavior. With the meeperBOTS app, students as young as five years old, can control the meeperBOT with a simple, handheld, on-screen remote. Head inside to learn more about it.
From Aug. 2-5 2016, we’re participating in the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) Make Learning Happen event in Syracuse, NY. We were selected as the event’s preferred vendor after spending much of the last couple of months working to create, procure and customize EdTech bundles for PK-12 students in the districts they serve.
The Raspberry Pi is a $35 computer about the size of a credit card. Its capabilities are astounding and it keeps getting more and more powerful as new models are released. What’s most impressive is the way it transforms complex projects into amazingly simple machines and helps shape future ready students through hands-on adventures.
If you’re a STEM-minded teacher and believe your students might benefit from being introduced to programming, you might be right. Students with programming skills—however basic they may be—are able to navigate a wealth of quality opportunities from internships to future employment gigs because this is one of the most important skills employers are looking for.
It’s time to dive a bit deeper into the top STEAM careers of tomorrow—the most profitable tracks, the skills students will need and the jobs robots will not be able to steal. One of the biggest fears facing the world today is the fact that robots seem poised to one day take over a great deal of our jobs at
If you are looking to introduce robotics at a young age, Cubelets is a fantastic way to do so. The three easy-to-use robot construction kits each come packaged with simple instructions along with some increasingly complex robot project ideas. I experimented with the Cubelets Six Kit, which includes six unique blocks.
