Posted on: 17 October 2015
We kicked off the autumn season with an event in Bath. Gicela Morales and Danielle Vass talked about their experiences with teaching kids to code. Gicela runs after school clubs with Coding Bug and Danielle has run many coding sessions with kids, and also university students, in Bath.
There was quite a lively discussion after the presentations. How can we serve kids and in particular girls better and give them the opportunity to learn and enjoy programming? While programming is now part of the curriculum for primary schools, there’s at least one case we heard of where the option to do a GCSE in computer science has been removed (and this was a girls’ school!). In general, providing adequate education in secondary schools might currently be the bigger challenge than in primary schools.
One very interesting suggestion - based on positive experience - was getting older girls to guide younger ones as a good way to involve them in coding activities.
There was some interest in a workshop on how to teach kids to code, so we might organise one in the new year.
References/Resources:
- Gicela’s slides: http://www.slideshare.net/gicelamorales/10-things-ive-learned-teaching-coding-to-kids
- Video of Danielle’s talk: https://www.slideshare.net/secret/7iyPEILd4skYu0
- Danielle’s slides: https://www.slideshare.net/secret/7iyPEILd4skYu0
- Programmer and interested in helping out?