coding language

Scratch – Coding to learn!
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Scratch – Coding to learn!

Scratch

Scratch is a click-drag-and-drop programming environment that is exceptional for introducing students to programming concepts via Windows and Mac OS X . Students can use Scratch to code their own interactive stories, games, and animations. In the process, they learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively, which are essential skills for society and the classroom.

Target year level:  Year 3-6 (Also recommended for high-school students)

Curriculum learning area: Digital Technologies

General Capabilities: Literacy, Numeracy, ICT, Critical and Creative Thinking

Developed by: Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab

Why use scratch in your classroom? Scratch introduces students to programming without the daunting pressure of understanding coding/programming language. Beginners are often ‘put off’ when faced with errors in coding, as many programmers are quite abstruse in their language, however scratch aims to overcome this barrier by using a drag-and-drop technique that is readily available to young ages. Scratch uses visual programming language that can be used to construct games, presentations, tutorials, animations, interactive stories and more to create a conceptual understanding or digital materials.

About this resource: Scratch has provided a educational resource for teachers that provides a digital platform for teachers to engage in and share stories, experiences, resources and meet fellow educators via the Scratch Educator Meetups. Note: These meetups are USA centralized.  Scratch also provides teachers with an educator account to help manage classroom projects and student programs.

Links to other learning areas: 

  • Art – Drawing experimentation with colour
  • Mathematics – Plot, graph, demonstrate and application of mathematical concepts
  • Science – Simulation and experimentation
  • Languages – Simple quiz input/output, including the recording of sound for feedback
  • English – Develop a narrative, plot points, characters and actions
  • All learning areas – Demonstrate a deeper, conceptual understanding of fundamental ideas

Mitch Resnick – Computer Scientist

Mitch Resnick is the director of the Life Long Kindergarten Group and LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at MIT Media Lab. Resnick aims to engage students with technology, encouraging them to create and experiment using coding with digital resources. You can find more information about Mitch Resknick here: https://www.media.mit.edu/people/mres/overview/

Scratch program snapshots

Scratch interface home page

Scratch background editor

Scratch character script

Scratch game/ challenge programming code

Programming in Schools using Scratch: A CS4HS: Iterate Workshop by Bruce Fuda

Download this resource to view a complete written document that maps out the Scratch program layout and how you can download/use it in your classroom

 

 

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Swift Playgrounds

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Swift Playgrounds is a revolutionary new app for iPad that makes learning Swift interactive and fun. Solve puzzles to master the basics using Swift — a powerful programming language created by Apple and used by the pros to build many of today’s most popular apps. Then take on a series of challenges and step up to more advanced creations. Swift Playgrounds requires no coding knowledge, so it’s perfect for students just starting out. It also provides a unique way for seasoned developers to quickly bring ideas to life. And because it’s built to take full advantage of iPad, it’s a first-of-its-kind learning experience. Watch the demo

Real Swift code.
Real simple. Real fun.

Learning to code with Swift Playgrounds is incredibly engaging. The app comes with a complete set of Apple-designed lessons. Play your way through the basics in “Fundamentals of Swift” using real code to guide a character through a 3D world. Then move on to more advanced concepts.

Conquer levels, puzzles, and coding concepts.

Starting with the “Fundamentals of Swift” lesson, you’ll tackle goals using the same code professional developers use every day. As you move along, more advanced concepts come into play. You’ll continually build on what you’ve learned and create even more complex code.

Coding Concepts

Swift Playgrounds includes interactive lessons that use puzzles and experimentation to teach the following core coding concepts, and more:

  • Commands
  • Functions
  • Parameters
  • Loops
  • Conditional statements
  • Variables
  • Operators
  • Types
  • Initialization

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Why Teach students to code in Swift?

Real Swift. Real iOS.

The Swift programming language was designed to be approachable enough to be your very first programming language. Swift is also incredibly powerful, used by professional developers to create thousands of apps in the App Store. Using Swift Playgrounds, you will code real programs within minutes and even as you become more proficient, you will never outgrow Swift.

Swift Playgrounds also gives you access to iOS frameworks such as UIKit, SpriteKit, SceneKit, bluetooth, and Metal. And because you are coding and running your playgrounds on iPad, your code can respond to touch gestures or interact with hardware such as the camera, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

Meet the 9 year old Australian Coding Whiz Coding with Swift. This could be one of your students! Click Here

Swift or Scratch?

Swift Playgrounds essentially takes what Scratch based training provides (with some nice enhancements,) and brings it to the iPad. Swift Playgrounds can replace Scratch based code training, except that students will be learning the basics of the Apple Swift programming language instead. This means your students are learning to code in a language used by developers all over the world. This means they can create apps for iPad, Apple Mac, Apple Watch and many more. IBM developers have begun using Swift as one of their “First Class” languages, and Google are planning to introduce Swift for coding apps on Android! That’s how powerful this language is.

Availability

A preview release of Swift Playgrounds is available now to Apple Developer Program members as part of the iOS 10 developer preview and is available with the iOS 10 public beta in July. The final version of Swift Playgrounds will be available in the App Store® for free this September. Swift Playgrounds is compatible with all iPad Air® and iPad Pro™ models and iPad mini™ 2 and later running iOS 10. For more information including videos, images and demos, visit, apple.com/swift/playgrounds.

West Australian Curriculum Links

Subject: Digital Technologies

Digital implementation

  • the process of implementing digital solutions

Creating solutions by:

  • investigating and defining
  • designing
    producing and implementing
  • evaluating
  • collaborating and managing

Year Level: Years 2 -6

Strand: Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Sub strand: Using Digital Systems

  • Design Modify and follow simple algorithms involving sequences of steps, branching and iteration (repetition).
  • Use visually represented sequenced steps (algorithms), including steps with decisions made by the user (branching)
  • Use simple visual programming environments that include a sequence of steps (algorithm) involving decisions made by the user (branching)
  • Design, modify, follow and represent both diagrammatically, and in written text, simple algorithms (sequence of steps) involving branching (decisions) and iteration (repetition)

Cross Curriculum Priorities & General Capabilities:

  • Critical and creative thinking (CCT),
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT),
  • Literacy
  • Numeracy

Links to Other Learning Areas:

  • Mathematics
    • Recognise and use Patterns and Relationships
    • Using Spatial Reasoning
  •  English
    • Word Knowledge

Bibliography:

  http://www.apple.com/au/swift/playgrounds/

   http://www.apple.com/education/everyone-can-code/

   https://developer.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/

 https://swift.org

Cargo-Bot
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Cargo-Bot

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year Level: 5

Strand: Digital Technologies processes and production skills

Substand strand: Digital Implementation

Design, follow and represent diagrammatically, a simple sequence of steps (algorithm), involving branching (decisions) and iteration (repetition) (ACTDIP019)

Creating solutions by: Investigating and Defining 

Define a problem, and set of sequenced steps, with users making a decision to create a solution for a given task.

Link to the resource: 

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/cargo-bot/id519690804?mt=8

Cross curriculum priorities and general capabilities:

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
  • Critical and creative thinking

Links to other learning areas:

  • Mathematics

A classroom activity using this resource:

This application is similar to the one I posted about Codea. However, it is best used as an introduction to coding before advancing onto Codea. Cargo-Bot is a free coding game which was made by Codea but has been adjusted to suit an introductory level of coding. Students are introduced to the idea by completing games at different levels. On each level, the objective is to move coloured crates from one place to another by programming a claw crane to move left or right, and drop or pick up. This application avoids the use of “Lua”  – programming language and uses symbols instead. Students are able to record their solutions to the different levels and place these on YouTube. Basically, the aim of this application is to help students understand programming/coding concepts.

How to use this resource: 

  • You will need to start by going onto the Apple app store and download Cargo-Bot. This is a free application.
  • Once downloaded, students will be introduced to the way the application works through a guide at the beginning.
  • The application does provide instructions as to what the aim of each of the levels is and how to go about completing them.
  • Students can also watch YouTube videos made by other students of how the different levels work and what the aim of each level is.

 

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Kodable

Teaching Kids to Code: Mission Possible

Kodable

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year: P-4

Strand: Digital Technologies

Sub-Strand: Processes and Production Skills

Content Descriptors:

Year P: Use data to complete a task

Year 1: Use data to solve a simple task/problem

Year 2: Use data to solve similar tasks/problems

Year 3: Use visually represented sequenced steps (algorithms), including steps with decisions made by the user (branching)

Year 4: Use simple visual programming environments that include a sequence of steps (algorithm) involving decisions made by the user (branching) 

General capabilities: 

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
  • Critical and creative thinking

(“Technologies Learning Area Scope and Sequence”, 2015)

Kodable

Kodable introduces students to the concepts involved in computer programming. It provides visual instructions and step-by-step levels. It begins with a back story, introducing the ‘Fuzz family’ crash landing on a planet called Smeeborg. Students then explore mazes and collect coins.

The ‘Fuzz family’ are guided through these mazes as the students drag and drop commands. Each level then reinforces the concepts students are learning, and adds new concepts along the way. Levels are unlocked as students progress through the mazes, but teachers can manually unlock levels as need, which is a great feature for Gifted and talented students who may learn the concepts very quickly and need to be accelerated through the levels to continue to be challenged.

Kodable engages students with fun and colourful characters, and fun games. It keeps them challenged but not overwhelmed. Students build conceptual understanding and build on their knowledge as they think and act like programmers. Videos are provided to introduce students to new concepts, and extensions are provided in the teacher portal.

The Kodable website also provides learning guides for each area. There learning guides provide an overview of the topic, techinical vocabulary, lesson plans, un-plugged activities and on-line activities. Activities provided in the lesson plans include a range of whole group, guided practice and independent activities.

How to Use

Teachers can simply visit the Kodable website and sign up for a free account. Create a class name and class code and add your students to create student profiles (you can simply copy and paste students names from a class list to save time).

Advantages

  • Teachers can manually unlock levels
  • Provides differentiation and extension
  • Scaffolded learning sequence
  • Free teaching resources

Possible Disadvantages

  • After 30 levels it will cost $6.99USD to unlock the rest

Resource Links

Kodable website: https://www.kodable.com/

Kodable App (iTunes): https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/kodable/id577673067?mt=8

Kodable App (Google Play): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.surfscore.kodable.main.android

Platforms

Android

iPad

 References

Kodable. (2016). Retrieved from website: https://www.kodable.com/

Technologies Learning Area Scope and Sequence. (2015). Retrieved from School Curriculum and Standards Authority website: http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-curriculum/curriculum-browser/technologies/digital-technologies2/technologies-overview/Tech_Scope_and_Sequence.pdf

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Swifty: A Coding App for Students

Swifty logoAbout This Resource:

Swifty is an easily accessible app for iPhones and iPads that allows users to develop their coding skills and design their own apps. The app is the perfect choice for beginners getting used to the basics of coding by providing a multitude of quick tutorials that helps students move from simple to more complex tasks. Swifty is free to download and $3.99 to unlock all the chapters. Students can become fluent in programming and code language through putting figures into motion, designing their app layout, and applying these to a range of other learning areas such as creating models of volcano science experiments or a database of their information relating to the First Fleet and European Settlement in Australia.

Subject: Technologies

Year Level: 3-6

Strand: Digital Technologies

  • Knowledge and Understanding
  • Processes and Production

Sub Strands:

  • Digital Systems
  • Representation of Data
  • Collecting, Managing and Analysing Data
  • Digital Implementation
  • Creating Solutions by: Investigating and Defining, Designing, Producing and Implementing, Evaluating, Collaborating and Managing

Link to Resource: https://hellocode.io/swifty/

Cross Curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities: Literacy (specific coding and programming language); Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability (understanding digital systems (iPad), procedures and computational thinking); Critical and Creative Thinking (problem solving, innovating and designing); Personal and Social Capability (project management, collaboration); Ethical Understanding (understanding safe procedures, complex issues associated with technology and consider possibilities).

Links to Other Learning Areas: Science, Technologies (Design), English, Maths, The Arts, Social Science.

Swifty can be used in conjunction to any primary school learning area as it contains a variety of tutorials that can be used in a range of contexts and the code flexibly adapted to suit specific tasks.

Suggested Classroom Activity:

Swifty1

Example of Swifty Coding Language

 

In a year 4 classroom context, Swifty can be used with a Social Science focus by having students display their researched information about James Cook and the journey of the First Fleet from England to Australia. Finding a way that is logical to them, students will have the opportunity to use their new digital skills to add images, link to relevant websites and sources, and design an easy-to-navigate app layout for this information for other users.