Fifth grade students at Bath Elementary School have started to learn how to program and code on computers using the website code.org.

Bath Elementary School principal Dan Fry decided to have some of the fifth grade students start learning how to write code.
“[We] began teaching coding this year on a small basis so that we could learn more about it and see how students enjoyed it,” Fry said.

Bath Elementary School librarian Jill Burket, works as the student’s main coding teacher and has set each of the students up on the code.org. She discussed the difficulty of the concepts that the students are learning, and compared their work to JavaScript, a programming language used to make web pages interactive.

“The concepts are not difficult. It progresses in a natural fashion and teaches one step at a time. It is a block program, not JavaScript or a regular programming language, but it gets them thinking like ‘coders,’” Burket said.

Bath Elementary School teachers such as Kim Keating have their class learn coding twice per week for forty minutes each time. Keating commented on the website that the students use.

“[The website] looks very much like a video game.  [Students] are trying to get the character to do the action that is required. They have to move the coding “blocks” to fit together like puzzle pieces.  Other coding sites that we have tried are more free form where the students are creating their own video games, animations, etcetera, using coding blocks,” Keating said.

Fry expressed what the school wants the students to get out of this new program at the school.

“We believe that this program will teach students the 4 C’s of critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. The students have to think, experiment, reflect on their work, collaborate with peers, and discuss their strategies with each other. These are career readiness skills that we want all of our students to learn,” Fry said.

The students are using Chrome books and iPads when they take the coding classes.

Burket voiced what she wants the students to get out of learning how to code.

“Another important part of [coding], I believe, is teaching perseverance. When [students] code something incorrectly or can’t solve something right away, that is a very important part of the learning process. I want them to understand that most problems in life will take many tries to conquer,” Burket said.
The fifth graders have been learning coding since the start of this 2015-2016 school year. Bath School will start teaching coding to 4th graders in the upcoming year.