‘Code to the Future’ engages young Seminole students
The cartoon cat on Elijah Nieves’ laptop screen tossed a basketball, an action coded by the 10-year-old. His classmates made cartoon unicorns leap, hats fall and a reindeer crash into a polar bear, all thanks to their budding computer coding skills.
“It was a hard start at first,” said Elijah, a fourth-grader at Altamonte Elementary School. “I was confused a little.”
But now he was confident in his newfound skills and, like others at his school, happy to show off his creations. His parents, he added, were impressed when they attended a demonstration of students’ work. “They thought it was fun, and it was awesome.”
Altamonte is one of two elementary schools in Seminole County this academic year to introduce computer science lessons to all students in kinder-
garten to fifth grade. Altamonte and Pine Crest Elementary School in Sanford have adopted the “Code to the Future” program, which aims to immerse students in computer science lessons and then help them use those skills in other subjects.
The effort is part of the school district’s “computer science 2020” initiative that has a goal of giving all elementary and middle school students a “robust introduction” to coding and computer science. It comes as the State Board of Education and Gov. Rick Scott have urged state lawmakers to spend $15 million in the coming year to boost coding and computer science offerings in Florida’s middle and high schools.
State leaders are pushing computer science because it’s a field where jobs are plentiful but in which relatively few Florida college students earn degrees.
At Altamonte, students get four 30-minute coding lessons a week. They started off with Scratch, a programming language designed for children. After the winter holiday break, they’lll build Lego vehicles and then program them. Older students also will learn the popular program language Java.
Principal Pam Gamble said the goal is to give students a foundation that, if they choose, will help them tackle computer science classes in high school and then college. But even if computer science isn’t their thing, they get critical practice in solving problems.
The “Code to the Future” lessons are new for most Altamonte teachers, some of whom were nervous when the project was announced during the summer. Though it includes teacher training ahead of each unit, students still ask questions that make teachers say, ““I’m not sure how we do that, but let’s talk it through together,” Gamble said.
But that’s often more valuable than having an answer readily provided, she added.
Fourth-grade teacher Michael Circe said he’s found his students usually work things out, with little trouble. “They taught me everything,” Circe said, “and they taught each other.”
In fact, he said, his students rarely raise their hands during their coding class. “They want to figure out everything for themselves,” he said.
With the Scratch programs, students learned how to direct cartoon characters’ actions, setting how many steps, the angle of turns and even when something would disappear from the screen.
“It’s really awesome. I like it. I can’t tell you how much I like coding,” said Natalia Donoso, a 9-year-old third-grader. “Coding is really my favorite thing.”
Her teacher, Andrea Grimm, said that’s the prevailing sentiment in her class.
“They picked up on it really quickly,” Grimm said. “They don’t like Wednesdays because they don’t get to do it.”
Because school dismisses an hour early on Wednesdays, there are no coding lessons that day.
The two “Code to the Future” elementary schools feed into Seminole middle schools — Milwee and Sanford — that already offer computer science and technology classes. But Gamble said she wouldn’t be surprised if they have to boost their offerings in coming years, given her students’ enthusiasm for coding.
Fifth-grader Peter Zinaich, 10, said the coding program was challenging at first but quickly drew him in and got him reading the tips section of the Scratch website for new ideas.
“It’s very fun,” he said. “I want to try to do more.”
He looked over at classmate Lexi Long’s work, as the 10-year-old demonstrated what she had done. “You did that? Wow!”