My journey with coding began a few summers ago. On a whim, I decided to try the "Summer of Code" on Khan Academy. I had always heard that math skills were needed for computer fields, but I really didn't know what kind of math was needed for computer programming. That summer I spent quite a bit of time completing the Beginners JavaScript course on Khan Academy, and I loved it! I'm still no expert, but after that summer I started a Coding Club at my school. It turns out there IS tons of math involved in coding....and lots of it even relates to what is taught in middle school.
You may not be ready to take on an entire JavaScript course, but there are lots of great resources out there to introduce kids to coding. In this post, I want to highlight my two favorite coding options. They are both great for a beginner skill level yet can challenge those with more experience. As a bonus, both resources do a great job of showing some of the connection between math and coding.
Code.org has lots of great resources that are perfect for people with no coding experience...both kids and adults. If you don't have any coding experience, the Hour of Code activities from Code.org are a great place to start. These activities are user-friendly and high interest. Code.org has a wide variety of quick coding activities to choose from, and they have all kinds of themes that are fun for kids.
My favorite is their Frozen themed Hour of Code activity. It has tons of math involved in the coding and it's so fun! This series of 20 puzzles starts out with some relatively simple puzzles, creating a series of lines that turn into a square. The challenges get more and more complex as you begin to write code to form a series of squares that rotate to form a pattern. This is a great activity if you are studying angles, and your artistic kids will love it too! I had my 7th graders try this as enrichment as part of our Shapes and Designs unit (focusing on interior and exterior angles, angle sums of polygons) and it kept them involved and challenged! These activities use blocks that you drag and drop in place...easy peasy!
My other favorite resource for a beginning coding activity is Khan Academy's beginner's Hour of Code activity. I love these Khan Academy resources. The teaching videos are easy to understand and interactive. While the Hour of Code activities from Code.org use drag and drop blocks, Khan Academy actually has students type in the code. I've had students tell me how "smart" they felt when they were typing in their lines of code. This set of JavaScript challenges will give your students a taste of coding as well as some of the math that is used in coding as students create simple drawings using code. Students really get a feel for how geometric figures are used in coding, as well as how it relates to the coordinate plane. If you like this Hour of Code activity, the full Intro to JavaScript course on Khan Academy is great as well (although probably not something you will have time to tackle in math class)!
If you don't have any experience with coding, now is the time to give it a try! These two activities may be just what you need to convince you that there may just be a place for coding in your math classroom. Leave a comment below with your favorite coding resource.
My favorite is their Frozen themed Hour of Code activity. It has tons of math involved in the coding and it's so fun! This series of 20 puzzles starts out with some relatively simple puzzles, creating a series of lines that turn into a square. The challenges get more and more complex as you begin to write code to form a series of squares that rotate to form a pattern. This is a great activity if you are studying angles, and your artistic kids will love it too! I had my 7th graders try this as enrichment as part of our Shapes and Designs unit (focusing on interior and exterior angles, angle sums of polygons) and it kept them involved and challenged! These activities use blocks that you drag and drop in place...easy peasy!
My other favorite resource for a beginning coding activity is Khan Academy's beginner's Hour of Code activity. I love these Khan Academy resources. The teaching videos are easy to understand and interactive. While the Hour of Code activities from Code.org use drag and drop blocks, Khan Academy actually has students type in the code. I've had students tell me how "smart" they felt when they were typing in their lines of code. This set of JavaScript challenges will give your students a taste of coding as well as some of the math that is used in coding as students create simple drawings using code. Students really get a feel for how geometric figures are used in coding, as well as how it relates to the coordinate plane. If you like this Hour of Code activity, the full Intro to JavaScript course on Khan Academy is great as well (although probably not something you will have time to tackle in math class)!
If you don't have any experience with coding, now is the time to give it a try! These two activities may be just what you need to convince you that there may just be a place for coding in your math classroom. Leave a comment below with your favorite coding resource.
