Discovery Education today launched its newest digital service—Coding—which supports coding education at the elementary and middle school levels. With this cool tool, students are inspired to learn important coding concepts like algorithms, sequences, and variables as they develop computational thinking skills through decomposition, logical reasoning, and problem solving.
Based in part on the award-winning Discovery Education Coding service used by teachers across the U.K., the U.S. version of Coding features a wide array of block coding resources that help students take coding from concept to reality. Providing an intuitive graphical approach to coding where students drag and drop events, objects, and actions to create and run a program, Coding’s block coding resources help students build their own games and apps.
Students also learn how web pages are designed, structured, and presented with HTML mark-up and CSS exercises. Using tags, images, and links, they see first-hand how dynamic web pages are brought to life. It also helps students explore how real-life coding language works by building quizzes, drawing graphics, and running simulations in Python.
Students can express their creativity with the open-ended activities at the end of each unit that stretch student imagination and challenge them to come up with their own ideas by adding new objects and actions to those used in lessons. They can go even further within the free code area, where they can write their own code using a full library of coding blocks.
Coding is structured to make engaging young students in coding easy. Each unit is broken down into bite-size chunks that enable students to master each skill before moving on to the next. Built-in code validation and a “console” area help students identify any mistakes they’ve made and ensure they’re fully supported in their learning. It also includes an extensive collection of teacher support resources, including explanatory videos that simplify complex concepts and provide visual illustrations and examples of what students need to achieve in each lesson. In addition, it contains over 100 lesson plans that provide everything teachers need for instruction, including a quick overview, learning objectives, success criteria, vocabulary, and key questions for comprehension.
The interesting contexts used throughout encourage students to produce a tangible output at the end of each lesson. Whether it’s making a space rocket fly or giving food to a hungry monster, every student will find their own unique source of inspiration within the platform.
Educators using the tool will be supported in their efforts to create digital learning environments by the Discovery Educator Network (DEN). A global community of education professionals, the DEN Community connects members across school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable networking, idea sharing, and inspiration.
The post Discovery Education Debuts Coding Service appeared first on EdTech Digest.