TEACHING KIDS CODING IMPROVES MATH, LOGIC SKILLS
To kick off a week at Coder Kids’ summer camp, college-age instructors engage students by showing one cool way coding can be used. Keying in basic back-end language, the teacher makes an on-screen glitter bomb and shares the keyboard with the student, who learns that pressing the space bar detonates a glitter explosion. Then, the instruction begins.
Coding appeals to kids because of instant gratification like this, says Jeff Ward, founder of Houstonbased Coder Kids and a former elementary school teacher.
“You type in something or drag some blocks over and immediately see what it’s doing on the screen,” he says.
Mastering cause and effect and building on it is so fun that kids don’t realize they’re improving their math and logic skills along the way, Ward continues.
Coder Kids (coderkidstx.com) works with public and private schools to offer after-school programs during the school year. Registration just opened for their summer day camps throughout Houston, open to kids entering kindergarten through 12th grade.
In a one-week camp, the youngest kids learn the fundamentals of Scratch, the coding language for kids created by developers at MIT.
Beginning with the letters of his or her name, a student uses a laptop or tablet to learn the back-end functions that can make each letter a different color. From there, they’ll learn to make letters animated in different ways and to add sounds.
Next, a maze game teaches basic directional blocks (moving an object up, down, right and left). There is game-based learning including a dragon-wizard matchoff and classic “Pong.”
As they advance to the thirdthrough sixth-grade camp, kids can choose to create animation, code a drone or make their own basic video games.
Ward says his instructors, who are computer science students at Rice University and the University of Houston, stay on the lookout for new games and technology to introduce at the camp.
Half-day camps at Coder Kids start at $210 a week.
Library teaches coding, too
Houston Public Library will offer free basic coding classes for youths at several branch locations this summer (houstonlibrary.org). In the past, classes for teens and tweens have lent skills to build a website or use code to create music, sounds and artwork.
Rebecca Denham, Teen Services coordinator, says the library has increased the amount of tablets and coding games that can be reserved at a library branch for in-library use. One popular one is Robot Mouse. Kids use coding cards to build a path for a programmable mouse that moves through the path. Another popular learning module is a DIY computer set. Kids read instructions on how to build a basic computer and then program it, she says.
“Everything we do now is on computers or involves robots of some kind,” Denham says. “Our youth today really need to know how these work and not just take them for granted.”
Families can contact their library branch to ask about reserving and checking out learning modules.
Coding for girls
Girls who have shown an interest in programming or robotics can apply for Girls Who Code’s free, seven-week summer immersion program. The national nonprofit hosts after-school programs at public and private schools throughout Houston during the school year (girlswhocode.com).
Girls entering 11th and 12th grade can apply for the summer immersion program, which takes place in Houston June 17-Aug. 2. The application deadline is Feb. 15.
The course is designed to expose students to careers in computer science, offering meet-ups with female business leaders in the tech industry.
A shareable, usable online product is the end goal at Code Ninjas, too.
Advancing in “belt” color under the instruction of Code Senseis, the Pearland-based company has several franchise locations where students hit self-paced achievement advances through afterschool and weekend drop-in sessions, spring break and summer camps.
Students hit the top skill level, or belt, when an app they’ve created is published in the app store.
Code Ninjas’ spring break camps focus on creating digital art and making basic video games. Halfday spring break camps start at $200 a week.
Families who don’t want to commit to formal classes can take advantage of free online resources, Ward says, including Scratch (scratch.mit.edu) and code.org to build and hone their skill set over time.