Helping a primary school introduce coding

[simran]

Hi All, 

My kids primary school teacher this afternoon spoke to me about wanting to introduce coding for the school (she's the person the principal looks to for recommendation on tech; and she's very tech savvy). 

She was a little stuck on where to start though... If there is anyone on this list that is happy to catchup with her to help formulate the school vision (and more) around teaching kids how to code, please email me, and i'll setup a meeting. (fyi, the school is in the sutherland shire)

cheers, 

simran.

[Ray Sutton]

Hi Simran,

Please allow me to introduce myself my name is Ray Sutton and I am the I would like to introduce myself, I am the WA Regional Manager of ScopeIT Education. We are in the process of contacting schools in WA to show what we do and how we operate to service the schools.

 

About ScopeIT

At ScopeIT Education, we teach students how to engage with technology and incorporate it into their school work. We know that the students can use technology to play games and ‘generally consume’ the apps and websites available to them, but ScopeIT Education offers students a computer coding program that takes a student’s education one step further. 

ScopeIT can extend your students learning in technology to include:

• How the internet works
• How to build basic apps, websites and other computer programs
• Safe use of the internet
• Logical thinking, problem solving techniques and creative design using technology
• 3D printing and robotics

Who we are:

ScopeIT Education is an Australian founded, owned and operated national education institution. It is the industry leader in providing professionally developed Information and Computer Technology (ICT) syllabus and lessons closely aligned with STEM and Department of Education curriculum outcomes.

 

What we offer:

Our courses help students from Year 1 through to Year 6 learn the fundamentals behind the technology they use every day. As they progress through the ScopeIT material they are equipped with skills to code and become competent creators of technology. View the courses we offer

 

Students love our fun and engaging courses. Our three pathways include:

 

• Creative Coding (Programming, App Development and Websites)
• Digital Living (Internet Safety, Google & Research Skills)
• Bits and Bytes (Electronics, 3D Printing and Robotics)

 

How we work with schools:

Our lesson plans have curriculum-aligned outcomes.

We come fully prepared with all our own equipment including MacBook Airs, Wi-Fi (Internet), 3d printer and two fully trained instructors.

Please see www.scopeiteducation.com.au for more information.

Thanks and look forward to speaking to you.

Ray Sutton

[Dylan Jay]

She might be better just borrowing form online courses designed for absolute beginners like https://www.coursera.org/learn/python


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[Nigel Sheridan-Smith]

Hi Simran,

It would be a good idea to investigate Code Club Australia (http://www.codeclubau.org/) and Code the Future (http://www.codefuture.org) - which provide resources and a network of developers who can help to get it started. You can also search for CoderDojo's in the area (particularly Brisbane, or WA).

A quick plug as well - if you are a developer with some spare time, consider volunteering at Code the Future too! :) 

Cheers,

Nigel

Dr Nigel Sheridan-Smith PhD / Principal
Green Shores Digital 

 

M: +61 403 930 963
E: ni...@greenshoresdigital.com
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[Leigh]

Hi Simran, I co-founded jnrengineers.com in late 2014. We are now right across East Coast from Melbourne to Townsville. Business partners in nearly all major regions and all east coast capital cities, providing software coding and robotics courses to students from Years 3 to 12 as well as trainer course for teachers. Feel free to reach out to our GM Nimrod 0431 444 241 or ad...@jnrengineers.com. I'm happy to do the intro offline if you wish, best, Leigh

[Julien Flack]

Hi Simran,

I would recommend CoderDojo. It is volunteer led and completely free and its part of a worldwide network aimed at teaching kids to code. You can start your own dojo at your school or take a bunch of kids to one of the pre-existing dojos in Perth:

http://www.coderdojowa.org.au/

I took my son and 2 of his friends to the ECU/Mt. Lawley dojo for the last couple of years (he is 9). I ended become a volunteer mentor and I enjoyed it. They teach kids using MIT's popular and amazing Scratch visual programming language, (http://scratch.mit.edu), which is the best place to start teaching kids the concepts behind programming. But coderdojo also goes beyond that and introduces python, javascript and other programming environments like Unity.

Regards,

Julien Flack.

[simran]

Thankyou to everyone who replied. I've summarised the responses below (which i'll be forwarding to my kids primary school teacher for follow up). 

Was disappointing not to hear from the bodies that claim the mantle of representing the community and promoting STEM on the policy level - i guess they are too busy doing great things that they haven't actually got time to do anything at the grassroots level that doesn't generate immediate PR! 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There is a future schools expo that is worth getting to: http://futureschools.com.au/

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Ray <r...@scopeiteducation.com.au>

About ScopeIT

At ScopeIT Education, we teach students how to engage with technology and incorporate it into their school work. We know that the students can use technology to play games and ‘generally consume’ the apps and websites available to them, but ScopeIT Education offers students a computer coding program that takes a student’s education one step further. 

ScopeIT can extend your students learning in technology to include:

• How the internet works
• How to build basic apps, websites and other computer programs
• Safe use of the internet
• Logical thinking, problem solving techniques and creative design using technology
• 3D printing and robotics

Who we are:

ScopeIT Education is an Australian founded, owned and operated national education institution. It is the industry leader in providing professionally developed Information and Computer Technology (ICT) syllabus and lessons closely aligned with STEM and Department of Education curriculum outcomes.

 

What we offer:

Our courses help students from Year 1 through to Year 6 learn the fundamentals behind the technology they use every day. As they progress through the ScopeIT material they are equipped with skills to code and become competent creators of technology. View the courses we offer

 

Students love our fun and engaging courses. Our three pathways include:

 

• Creative Coding (Programming, App Development and Websites)
• Digital Living (Internet Safety, Google & Research Skills)
• Bits and Bytes (Electronics, 3D Printing and Robotics)

 

How we work with schools:

Our lesson plans have curriculum-aligned outcomes.

We come fully prepared with all our own equipment including MacBook Airs, Wi-Fi (Internet), 3d printer and two fully trained instructors.

Please see www.scopeiteducation.com.au for more information.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Nigel Sheridan-Smith <wtf...@gmail.com>

It would be a good idea to investigate Code Club Australia (http://www.codeclubau.org/) and Code the Future (http://www.codefuture.org) - which provide resources and a network of developers who can help to get it started. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Leigh <leigha...@gmail.com>

Hi Simran, I co-founded jnrengineers.com in late 2014. We are now right across East Coast from Melbourne to Townsville. Business partners in nearly all major regions and all east coast capital cities, providing software coding and robotics courses to students from Years 3 to 12 as well as trainer course for teachers. Feel free to reach out to our GM Nimrod 0431 444 241 or ad...@jnrengineers.com. I'm happy to do the intro offline if you wish, best, Leigh

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Julien Flack <julie...@gmail.com>

I would recommend CoderDojo. It is volunteer led and completely free and its part of a worldwide network aimed at teaching kids to code. You can start your own dojo at your school or take a bunch of kids to one of the pre-existing dojos in Perth:

http://www.coderdojowa.org.au/

I took my son and 2 of his friends to the ECU/Mt. Lawley dojo for the last couple of years (he is 9). I ended become a volunteer mentor and I enjoyed it. They teach kids using MIT's popular and amazing Scratch visual programming language, (http://scratch.mit.edu), which is the best place to start teaching kids the concepts behind programming. But coderdojo also goes beyond that and introduces python, javascript and other programming environments like Unity.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks again to everyone that responded. 

cheers, 

simran.

Hi Simran,

On Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 3:11:36 PM UTC+8, simran wrote:

Hi All, 

My kids primary school teacher this afternoon spoke to me about wanting to introduce coding for the school (she's the person the principal looks to for recommendation on tech; and she's very tech savvy). 

She was a little stuck on where to start though... If there is anyone on this list that is happy to catchup with her to help formulate the school vision (and more) around teaching kids how to code, please email me, and i'll setup a meeting. (fyi, the school is in the sutherland shire)

cheers, 

simran.

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[Jason Held]

Hi Simran

The policy level ninjas likely don't receive a daily update from Silicon Beach. :) 

I'm sure they would be happy to chat with you

Meanwhile, a few space related STEM programs are ramping up in Oz.

- QubeRider.com, a Miru-D member, sells satellite kits on the cheap to schools.  The kids can learn on the kit and eventually to test their code on a CubeSat which is being manifested for launch next year.

- MARVEL, "Mars Virtual Lab", in collaboration with top planetary scientists from Adelaide making courses for 9-14 year olds

- Nasa Space Apps challenge.  There is a Sydney hackathon in April, open for anyone really but very student friendly.  

Feel free to reach out if any of these are of interest and I'm happy to connect

Jason

[simran]

You'd be surprised Jason... they used to constantly monitor the ecosystem lists (especially this one) to gauge interest and promote their events to. 

I would have thought they would have jumped at the opportunity to talk at a school level and would have had a process in place when a school says "we want help" - but "word on the street" is that they are not doing so well financially - their newsletters have stopped and people are being "let go" as corporate sponsors are proving not as trivial to find. 

Anyway, i know the school will be interested in all the startups you have mentioned, i know a few more fantastic ones like PiggyMoney, but what the school really needs is a person who can help them engage with all these things - trying to put the jigsaw together would overwhelm them. On that note, i've invited the teacher to come with me to futureschools.com.au on the 3rd of March - and no doubt we will find a lot of info there and figure out how they engage all the different aspects of the ecosystem. 

I will offer them all my help of course, but i just know there are many better people than me who would have dealt with schools already and will know what works and what doesn't. 

cheers, 

simran.

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[gord]

Simran,

Topic after my heart .. my 12yo son has written quite a few projects in Scratch over the past few years, most recently a "chat bot".  He's kind of at the point where the logic is a bit complex for a visual code builder and would be simpler as code.  With a bit of help he's managed to get colored objects bouncing around and colliding using javascript and the html5 canvas api...

Another site we looked at was Khan Academy - https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/programming  

What I _really_ like about all this is not just the code part, also its a way for kids to learn _math_ : which is more visual, experimental and kind of tactile ( you'll never forget pythagoras' rule for working out distance if you've used it to detect collisions in a game).

The other thing I'm discussing with my sons school is a "Math Circle" for students who perhaps find the core material a bit easy, and like the kind of math problems you see in, say, the Australian Math Competition.  Circles have worked well overseas, but as far as I know only one group in Aus doing this ( in WA ).

Some of my thoughts on perhaps combining the two approaches, on my blog - https://quantblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/mathcircle-with-code/

Always happy to swap notes, feel free to pm me etc,

cheers,

gord.

Melbourne

[Daniel Zachary Jones]

SonicPi: instant feedback for making music, uses Ruby, lesson plans online. F\LOSS. http://sonic-pi.net/ I'd say 12+ http://sonic-pi.net/

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