Grade 2 students at St. Paul Catholic School are receiving an early introduction to coding.
Julie Malone, grade 2 teacher at St. Paul Catholic School has embraced the newly developed math curriculum, engaging primary students through activities as an introduction to coding.
“They loved it! Afterwards they said 'aren't we having math?’ when they looked at the schedule. They didn't realize they were doing math!” shared Malone.
When the Ministry of Education revised the elementary math curriculum in 2020, they incorporated coding expectations at all grade levels from grades 1-8.
“Coding expectations fall within the Algebra strand, and the overall expectation across all grades is to solve problems and create computational representations of mathematical situations using coding concepts and skills. At the grade 2 level, one specific expectation involves solving problems by writing and executing code, including code that involves sequential and concurrent events,” shared Cathy Chaput, program coordinator with a focus on STEM subjects at Wellington Catholic DSB.
Chaput joined the grade 2 class for the day to introduce the students to coding through ‘coding unplugged’ which teaches coding by writing and executing the code without using a computer.
“The students seemed very engaged and excited,” said Chaput. “They initially explored positional terms such as above, below, beside, to the right, to the left, using a little ‘friend’ - a figurine, to reactivate previous learning and concepts. Then using action and motion cards, they took turns creating code or sequences for their partner to execute. They would monitor to make sure their code was being followed. We wrapped up by ‘coding’ their teacher Julie around a 10 X 10 grid called a Learning Carpet so that she could pick up three stuffed puppies that were placed around the grid. They were so successful!”
Using this new skill, the students will be moving around a 100's chart using directions to get to a mystery number, as well as using beebots and Dash robots in the maker space room to code them through a maze of wood as our culminating.
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