Cracking the Code
In 1996 I was a girl who spent a year studying computer science and all I remember was writing code to get a bunny to walk forward and hop on the screen of a giant black and white computer. This was no easy task! From 1996 until now I have believed the world of coding was simply programming computer software but I couldn’t have been more wrong!
As I prepared for this session’s Coding and Robotics Quest I quickly discovered that our entire lives are full of code! Yes, it was a bit of a Matrix movie style realization minus the high-pressure choice of taking a red or blue pill. Just like the Matrix I realized that coding is in the chorus and refrain of music, it’s in card games, and it’s even in our cleaning, morning, and bedtime routines. Simply put, a code is a set of instructions to complete a task, to reach a goal. This realization opened up a world of “unplugged” coding games at Acton. Learners began this Quest with simple tasks such as coding a friend to walk from one room to another, then programming a learner to complete a Studio Maintenance job such as washing windows, and finally learners gained practice guiding a fellow traveler to create an identical lego tower using only words, no peeking!
Some learners dived right into the world of coding and found great ease and fun playing coding games while a few felt stuck and realized quickly that they were in their challenge zone. This week I found the journey of one Spark learner to be most fascinating.
On Tuesday she tried her first game, got stuck and immediately gave up. With a face full of sadness and a twinge of frustration she told me “I don’t want to play these games, they aren’t fun!” We chatted but despite my efforts of empathy and growth mindset encouragement she remained a bulldog stuck sulking on the studio rug. Wednesday, at the start of Quest she began deeply pessimistic however this time Ms. Emily asked her to play a game with her to try again. Her eyes began to fill up with tears and in that moment Ms. Emily realized that this learner simply needed tools, she was without language! All she needed was to know a few examples to get started such as: move one box to the right, start at the middle of the page, move one line down from the top, etc. Once she had tools, what happened next? A big, glorious SMILE and the statement “this is fun!” Thursday, Quest started and she dived right in as an official programmer. Her code was cracked and she is now developing a calling for coding.
After just three days of coding learners are flying through challenges and their appetite for coding is insatiable just like the mother of computer programming, hero Ada Lovelace. Ada famously shared “The more I study, the more insatiable do I feel my genius for it to be.” Perhaps your learner is the next Ada!
How to connect to your learner about coding at home? Simply, ask your learner to program you to make their bed, wash a table, or perhaps scoop a bowl of ice cream for them! Make sure to do exactly what they say no matter what and added points for imagining you are a robot computer––POWER ON!