At the start of their first week in the AT&T Classroom, the Echo Hills fourth graders were introduced to Hopscotch, an iOS app designed to teach children the basic elements of coding and programming. Across the week the students have continued progressing through the app’s coding levels to create increasingly more complex movements and animations. Providing opportunities for children to learn coding skills fosters students' abilities for mathematical reasoning, critical thinking and problem solving. It also provides opportunities for targeting math skills for computation, angles, and coordinate grids.
A recent article posted on the Educational Technology & Mobile Learning blog provides an overview regarding the importance of introducing coding to young students. Mrs. DeLorenzo has also shared some very informative videos with the students to help them understand the benefits of learning to code.