In Technology this semester, students will be learning about the basics of coding for programming technology.  The fundamental principal of coding is the importance of correctly following a sequence of instructions to achieve the desired outcome.  Students were introduced to the importance of instructions needing to be in the correct order when they followed the instructions for how to make the worlds best paper plane. 

They were very pleased when their paper planes flew – and I’d have to say, they are in fact the best paper planes I’ve ever made and flown.  

We then moved on to their first taste of writing code to program a Bee Bot to complete a challenge.  

After ‘writing’ their code (sequence of instructions), students programmed the code into a Bee Bot to see if it ended up on the correct square.  Mostly they did, some drove off the edge, some did circles etc, but if it didn’t make it the first time, each student was able to fix their coding so their Bee Bot would complete the challenge correctly.  This ‘test, diagnose and fix’ is akin to programmers finding and fixing ‘Bugs’ in software.  Because coding in the real world can be quite complex with multiple layers, there will nearly always be errors that have to be corrected.  Students can practice following a correct sequence of instructions at home.  You can help them learn programming at home by giving them a sequence of instructions when getting ready for school e.g. 1) get dressed, 2) Brush your teeth, 3) grab your bag, 4) get in the car. ?

Andrew