Welcome to Coding for Year 9 Numeracy

What is the link between coding and education?

"Coding isn't just for computer whizzes", says Mitch Resnick of MIT Media Lab. "It's for everyone."


Mitch Resnick's 2013 TED Talk, Let's teach kids to code" is a great place to start to develop an understanding of the benefits of teaching students to code.

As Mitch explains, "when you learn to read, you can then read to learn". He goes on to explain further by adding that learning to code involves students in thinking creatively, reasoning systematically and working collaboratively.  
Coding requires students to develop their ability to transfer knowledge and skills learned in subjects and elsewhere, to new situations. The ability to do so is essential to critical thinking and problem solving.


Learning to code provides students the opportunity to learn to think computationally ... a skill Professor Iwona Miliszewska, president of the Council of Deans of ICT at Canberra University, believes helps define educated people. 

So ... why learn to code in Year 9 Numeracy?

This video, from coding.org tells the story of some of those responsible for the developments of technology over the last 30 years, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

The purpose of the Numeracy Class is to up-skill students at risk of failing Maths. We have four lessons per week and use the online Australian program MathsPathway to provide a personalised program for every member of the class. We also work on tasks designed to expose students to numeracy in the workplace, providing them some insight into the way numeracy is used in real life.


So why add coding to this already full program? Our fourth Maths lesson each week occurs in Lesson 6 on Fridays ... the last lesson of the school week. We've tried working on our normal program, but quite frankly we're all tired by last lesson Fridays. Last term we enjoyed lots of maths-focussed quizzes using Kahoot ... which the students really enjoyed.

Our coding adventure began on Friday 21 August 2015, with the Bee Bot App. All students had a fantastic time, with most conquering all levels, some with 3 stars on every level.

Bee Bot is available on the App Store.
The students were engaged for the entire lesson. In fact, when I said it was after 3pm and the lesson was almost over, they were shocked, with one commenting, "That lesson went really fast!" 

I recently attended a Critical Agenda Conference in Sydney, iPads in Education. A colleague and fellow ADE, Greg Alchin, presented a coding workshop and I came away inspired to try coding with my Numeracy students in Lesson 6 on Fridays.

Students persisted when it got hard, and felt elated when they made it through a level programming the bee to find the flower.

They also worked collaboratively, helping each other out when they got stuck.

Much fun was had by all ... and they even got used to me taking photos in the end.

I provided the class a glimpse of where we're heading over the next five weeks or so. Watch this space for more updates of our exploits coding on the iPad in Year 9 Numeracy.