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Washington Township was honored and proud to welcome State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. McCormick to Nora Elementary during her “Road to Code” event. Dr. McCormick stopped in to several classrooms at Nora to see firsthand how coding is being implemented into daily instruction at all grade levels. Computer Science Education Week takes place annually in December, where the focus is to expose students to computer science.
Thanks to the Washington Township Technology Department, students across the district are being exposed to coding. Using various platforms like Scratch, Ozbots, and Cozmo, teachers are being trained to teach students the basic elements of coding, and teachers are finding students to be very responsive. “In some classrooms where up to five different native languages might be spoken, coding is a language that brings everyone together,” said Seth Hamilton, Technology Integration Coordinator for Washington Township. “The implementation of these programs has been exciting and eye-opening to see come to fruition. Once exposed to the coding platform, students (and teachers) really embrace the technology and let their creativity shine! Students far exceed our expectations and continue to deepen their understanding of coding, computational thinking, and problem-solving.”
Washington Township intends to expand coding and computer science efforts over the next five years. This year, the district began offering coding classes at middle schools and integrating computer science into after-school clubs. The district has plans to further develop STEM kits for each building that will include access to ‘code-rich’ activities such as programmable robots and other coding activities.
