Cracking the Codes

Imagine you’re just waking up in the morning. Your alarm—on your phone—has gone off. Using your phone, you check the headlines, Facebook, and the weather forecast. In the first ten minutes of being awake, you’ve deployed thousands of lines of code to gain information and complete tasks crucial to your day. Writing computer code is what makes it possible for engineers to create computer software, phone applications, and websites.

Innovation and technology coordinators Sheamus Burns (HS) and Laura Loftus (MS) have teamed up with 6th grade science teacher Stephen Harris to bring an incredible, multi-part coding unit to his class. Over the course of the school year, 6th grade students will be participating in five weeks of coding and robotics units interspersed in their science and math classes—an incredible opportunity for them to get a feel for how deep the connections between these courses and technology run.

In the first part of this unit, students worked in teams to write algorithms in order to create images on a grid. To guide them, their teammates used coded symbols. Next, students used a program on their laptops to snap together drawing code piece-by-piece, which they later saw played out on screen in front of them. Sheamus gave specific drawing challenges for the students to execute via code, such as creating a square using only certain code commands, with specific dimensions. Once they had a basic understanding of what certain commands do, students began to experiment. Through trial and error, they discovered which commands fit together to produce the results they wanted. One student said it was like learning to walk!

For the final phase of this exercise, students were given the incredible opportunity to put their newfound coding techniques to use—by programing robots to draw the designs they had written in code! Students spread out with their robots and colored markers over lengths of paper, and were dazzled watching the machines respond to their commands and draw a variety of shapes.

Learning coding empowers GDS students to think big in terms of what they can accomplish with technology. If they can program robots, there’s nothing stopping them down the line from making their own websites, or considering careers in the field of technology! Most importantly, they gain new appreciation for the technology that plays a huge role in shaping their daily lives.

After the exercise, as they carefully unplugged and put away their robots, the 6th graders continued to buzz with excitement over what they had just created, and this is only the beginning of the learning they'll be doing! It’s going to be an incredible year.