Learning Experience with Codes.org

 In IDET 4300, Stem Technology, we are fulfilling the ISTE CT Standards. The first standard is

 1a: Set professional learning goals to explore and apply teaching strategies for integrating CT practices into learning activities in ways that enhance student learning of both the academic discipline and CS concepts.

In class, we were split up into groups and each given a coding term. My group's coding term was loops. I went to the website Code.org to gain an understanding of my coding term. The term loops is defined as a sequence of instructions that is continually repeated until a certain condition is reached. To practice loops, I played several games to understand how loops work. My favorite game I played was called Snowflakes with Anna and Elsa.

Snowflakes with Anna and Elsa Summary

The goal in this game was to help Anna and Elsa draw a snowflake. The key was to use loops in a way that used pixels, degrees, and repeats. At first, I had a difficult time understanding what to do because I was unfamiliar with the word pixels. Pixels is defined as The pixel (a word invented from "picture element") is the basic unit of programmable color on a computer display or in a computer image. As I progressed in levels, the game continued to challenge the use of loops to help Anna and Elsa draw a snowflake. Here is a screencast example to give you more of a visual of my experience.

In this level, I had to nest all of the code inside of another repeat loop. A nested loop is defined as a loop inside of another loop. I was able to get familiar with how pixels worked and what degree I needed to set it at to perform my code.

This experience of learning how to code was fun for me. I personally have never learned about coding nor experience learning in this way. As a group, we were able to guide each other on learning terms that we came across and discuss the meaning of them. I was nervous that I was going to have a difficult time learning how to code and even apply it to a game, but I was able to pick it up fast. I also loved how each game was a different aspect of the term loops and was able to learn something different about loops within each game. In the future, when I have free time, I want to go through each coding term on Code.org to practice different types of coding. Maybe one day I will be able to construct a simple game of my own with various types of coding.

Reflecting back on the ISTE standard, I am thrilled that I was able to set a professional learning goal to explore and apply teaching strategies for integrating CT practices into learning activities in ways that enhance student learning of both the academic discipline and CS concepts. This standard was not only fun but educational. I am hoping in the future to use code.org with my students to give them the opportunity to explore different coding terms and have a demonstration with the coding games on how they are used.