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I recently came across this website "code.org" and was amazed at the opportunities the website gives. I currently teach 11th/12th graders, and they were all very interested in the video. It featured the creators of Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Will.I.Am, etc. The part that made the most impact was the appeal of job environment. I try to emphasize in class how I want the students to be successful in life, not just in my class, and with that they need different skills to go above and beyong. They were very responsive to the need of the computer programmers in various fields. I downloaded the ten minute video for them to get exposed, and I have been in contact with the company to get the program running for some of my classes. It is a little late for this year, but I am working on it for my Physics classes next year. The first module is free and students can at least gain some experience! www.code.org

Melissa, what a timely post. There is a move amongst some parents and teachers in my school to look into coding in my middle school. There seems to be a renewed surge of interest amongst some and adamant, “Heavens no!” reactions. I went to the http://www.code.org/ site, watched the 1 minute teaser and signed up for more information. I am not opposed to coding, but question whether or not we have the ability to teach it based on the equipment we have available. So many questions, perhaps the two biggest, what kind of computers would be required, the second, what software is needed to be successful? I look forward to hearing how your students do and what your further plans will be in terms of continuing with the coding.

I agree with Adah. I also believe its a great idea and teachers should bring this in their classroom. I love the site and its more invovling. Every student would love this program as well.

I like Codecademy for students. It has a range of topics/languages with pretty good tools built in.

And then there's Rails for Zombies. Students learn Ruby on Rails language while hunting Zombies :)

Lastly, there's the Processing Language which my students have picked up pretty quickly. The website Sketchpad.cc is a free collaborative code editor site. Students interested in coding can jump in and start editing the code and see what happens.

I completely missed this thread when it was first posted. Thanks for "bringing it back." I am intrigued by all of the tutorials that will teach students how to code for free. I agree with Adah that this would be a nice end of the year project and it definitely reenforces logic and sequential thinking skills.

“I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.” — Steve Jobs This quote is so true!! I learned programming or coding as it is now called many, many years ago and taught various forms of it to my students over the years in grades K-6. Coding teaches many thinking skills that I have found myself using over the years. Students find it fun and challenging, so they are learning to think sequentially and logically while enjoying themselves. Most of the websites with coding do not require a special computer (since you are usually running the coding from a browser website)or any software (it is built into the website). If you have time this summer, try some of the sites suggested in this forum and see for yourself!

Some of us may recall the Logo language approach (Think 1982 and before in the 70's.) Three decades spin by and now we can rename it coding, perhaps:} Anyway, there is still good stuff here and it might be a nice history of educational methods for those of us who are younger and may even have been taught Logo in their classrooms. Here are sites that have historical significance: http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/logo/ What is Logo? Lifelong kindergarten, MIT. Hmm. does this resemble coding? http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/logo/programming.html and who recalls Turtle Logo for kids at home http://logo.codeplex.com/ Enjoy your foray into the History & Philosophy of Science... ~patty

Let me begin by agreeing with the comment that today's students (as well as those of mine, and my daughter's, generations) will need the ability to "program" computers. I am from the "baby boom" generation; my daughter recently received a master's degree and currently performs lab and field data collection functions, and maintains a large database of geographic and water quality information related to the Great Lakes. Before I became a teacher, I developed learning systems for private industry. Neither of us had formal training in computer programming as part of our pre-college education, nor did we have training as undergraduates. Today, a large part of my daily activities involves maintaining and enhancing various types of online and local data to support my teaching activities. You might find it surprising, then, that I suggest that we probably should not be spending valuable classroom time, especially in science classes, to teach our students to program computers. Anything we teach them about specific technologies will be obsolete by the time they graduate high school - if we can even teach them anything close to current in under-equipped schools. Students properly prepared with sound math, science, and literacy skills will, however, be well-equipped to begin technical and college-level programs that will teach them skills to use current technologies, and adapt to new technologies as they appear. In the years since I began developing code, we have progressed from using FORTRAN and COBOL (procedural mainframe software) to object-based software, to a plethora of modern forms, each of which deviated radically from predecessor technologies. In my opinion, we need to help our students develop skills to build rational arguments and understand how everything is connected to everything else - basically, can we work on modeling phenomena, without specifically investing time to teach them how to write code?

I myself am a big fan of coding now and do it professionally. But when I was a schoolboy and a student, it was very difficult for me. There was even a threat of expulsion, but fortunately I was very saved by the experts to whom I turned for coding homework help and how quickly and qualitatively they accomplished the task is admirable. So I recommend you to familiarize yourself with it.