Coding is (More Than) Just a Game for Ellis Middle Schoolers
On an April morning in Middle School Computer Science Teacher Patrick Fagersten’s class, sixth graders huddled around their computers getting ready to play video games. But first, they have to design the games—and then code them—and then test them.
Using Scratch in the CS First environment (organized and supported by Google), students build on programming skills they started learning in fifth grade. They work through a series of lessons to learn coding techniques, and then work on a sample game within the system. From there, they can choose to build on those sample games or create one entirely of their own design.
“There’s a lot of freedom because we can choose from different lessons [and pick what] we want to do,” said Natalie Duff. “It makes it more fun.”
Computer Science is not a new course for Ellis—in fact, the course has been required in Grades 5-6 for several years, as have optional tech electives—but the program has expanded under Mr. Fagersten’s guidance to become more consistent and cohesive across Divisions. Students now begin taking Computer Science in third grade. All Middle School students from Grades 5-8 now take Creative Coding, and Grade 9 is also required to take a computer science course, after which several electives are available if they want to continue the program.
This spring, Grades 6 and 8 are both working on games units and will share the experience with Lower School students. Grade 8 will share the games they design with Grade 3 students; Grade 6 will share with Grade 1. Earlier this year, both older classes met their corresponding younger groups for other projects. Grade 8 helped Grade 3 work with Dash robots, while Grade 6 shared table top games that they built using the Hummingbird Robotics Kits, programming them with MakeCode.
“I like that we get to present to the little kids,” said sixth grader Rosie Filippelli. “It was fun and they really enjoyed it. It was really interactive, and they got to dance in the room and do more interactive things with the games.”
Rosie said she learned that there’s a lot of testing involved with game design, and that when it’s something you programmed you have to do a lot of testing to make sure it works. That’s one takeaway Mr. Fagersten hopes his students will learn. In addition to thinking about making games that are fun for their audience, he wants students to practice thinking about both the big picture and the details. He also wants them to learn how to find a balance between ambition and achievability.
“To me, learning how to learn is always the most important goal in school,” Mr. Fagersten said. “The obvious tip of the iceberg in these classes is learning to code and learning to think computationally, but the large mass under the surface is always learning bigger skills that can help development in many walks of life.”
A unique aspect of coding is that the students are teaching a computer to do a task, Mr. Fagersten said. To do that they have to learn to speak the computer’s language, and there are some confines in how to do that.
“Think of it like a play with several acts,” he said. “You have to do Act One before you get to Act Two. Act Two has to happen if Act Three is going to make sense. Programming also happens in a sequence, so the students are learning how to plan and order their tasks to achieve a goal. In programming you also get direct feedback, so if something doesn’t turn out the way they expected then they learn how to fix it or expand on it.”
Middle School Division Head Jenn Moynihan said that this integrated approach helps students think about what computer science means to them and how it might be part of what they want to do or study in the future.
“The fact that we are a one campus, three-division school with a cohesive computer science program is pretty unique,” she said. “And, because everyone is doing this from a young age it takes all the mystery out of it. From Grade 2 or 3, you are a computer scientist. It increases the accessibility to the field, and nothing about it feels out of reach. The younger you familiarize yourself with CS language, the more adaptable you’ll be moving forward.”
Mr. Fagersten said the strategic thinking skills learned by building on an existing idea and learning through invention are applicable in many aspects of school and life, from writing a paper to running a business.
“Some of these students will become coders, and some will not, but you’re learning a new way to think about problem solving, and you’re learning how you can be creative in structuring a solution. Teaching those skills early builds confidence in the long run.”
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