In the computer lab at Stokes-Beard Elementary School, fourth graders sat in pairs Tuesday morning with their heads bent toward computer screens. Murmurs traveled throughout the lab as one student in each pair gave the other directions on how to win the game they were playing.
“Three south,” fourth grader Tyra Lowery said to her partner Muhammad Kazmi. “Not two because the other time we (crashed).”
Kazmi placed a line of computer coding in the correct order on the screen, following Lowery’s instructions. A character from the popular game Angry Birds jumped “south” three spaces on the screen, landing on a pig. A message appeared on the screen telling the students they had completed the level.
The students aren’t just playing games though. They’re learning about computer coding as part of the Computer Science for Mississippi initiative, a pilot program the Mississippi Department of Education has placed in elementary and high school classrooms throughout the state.
Sharon Weems teaches the computer science course at Stokes-Beard. She has one class of 20 fourth graders who come in once a week and work in pairs to complete lessons on the computer. The students mostly learn about computer coding through a K-5 curriculum on Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to teaching computer science. Weems hopes for the students to complete three courses, each containing about 20 lessons, by May. Each lesson builds on previous ones. The courses are interspersed with videos and tutorials, and the kids can learn at their own pace.
“The thing about it is, it’s kind of in their own hands,” Weems said. “It’s a fun adventure for them, but we’re using a lot of key skills. … If you don’t get the code right, it’s not like you give up. We’re going to regroup, problem solve, think about it and rewrite the code. I really like that part of it.”
Stokes-Beard is not the only school in the Columbus Municipal School District to be involved in the pilot program, which will last three years. Each school in the district has implemented a computer science program to pilot with students, said CMSD Superintendent Philip Hickman, though he added the programs vary depending on the schools and students’ grade levels. Hickman said the district has even placed a computer science class in Columbus Middle School, though MDE has not come up with a program for middle school-age students.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for our students to prepare them for our future,” Hickman said.
Of the jobs created since the recession, most of them are for job seekers with an education higher than a high school diploma, Hickman said. And all those jobs involve technology.
The students go to the technology lab about once a week, but they also do some activities in the classroom that are not on the computer.
“You can learn a lot of experiments on coding,” Lowery said. “Coding is a good thing and you can work together. Two heads are better than one head. You can share with each other.”
She said no one tries to be bossy or take control of the computers when the students work together, echoing what many of the students said they liked about the class — they got to work together to figure out the lines of coding to play games and complete the lessons. The students each took turns being the “driver,” the person who controls the iPad or computer; and the “navigator,” the person who gives the driver directions, telling them where to place code. Some of the navigators sat quietly giving directions, others pointed at the screens or wrote instructions on paper.
“We can actually do something to work together,” fourth grader Jayden Johnson said. “Really this is the first time we get to work together on coding. And I think it’s a good thing.”
Weems noted the class also lays building blocks for other skills and character traits the students will need in the future.
“It just helps them with everything in life as far as just being critical and creative thinkers,” Weems said. “Think about the collaboration, communication, creativity, persistence, the problem solving ability. We want them to be constructive learners.”
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