3 Reasons Why is Coding Important for Students?

1. It helps promote creativity!

Children learn by experimenting! Even when they make a mistake they learn. I teach our students a mistake is not a failure, it is just one of to not do something! When you take the fear of making mistakes out of the picture, children can be creative and creativity is encouraged. Creativity is part of the process and not always the product!

2. Coding helps students academically!

When students learn to code, it helps them understand how to plan and organize their thoughts.  This can help lead to better writing skills that can be built upon as coding skills develop over time. A code is simply a well thought out set of instructions.

3. Coding helps students become problem solvers!

As students learn to code, they soon realize there is not just one correct  way to do something. There may be multiple ways to solve a problem. Through coding, they can improve upon what they have already done without worrying about failing. Coding is quickly becoming  basic literacy in the digital age.  With most of the future jobs dealing with computers or computer skills it is important for kids to understand and be able to understand the technology around them.

 KEY COMPUTER PROGRAMMING TERMS

• Command: an instruction for a computer

• Algorithm: a list of commands that you can follow to complete a task

• Program: an algorithm that is written for a computer

• Bug: an error that stops the program from working

• Debug: finding and fixing bugs in the program

Digital Literacy Hour of Code

*Great for grades 4-7*

Hour of Code Lessons from CS First

*CSFirst can be used without logging in though it doesn't save progress beyond the session that they are currently working on.*

Code Monkey Hour Of Code for All Ages

*Scroll down for activities*

CS ED Week Activities brought to you by CSforAR