Integrating Programming with Core Curriculum

Jennifer Roland:

There has been a steady and growing call for more students to learn computer programming. In an app-centric world, many see the immediate possible benefits of a more highly skilled workforce that can create the computer-based tools we all depend on. And tech companies love the idea. Adobe's Worldwide Education Programs Lead Tacy Trowbridge said coding is "an important and increasingly relevant form of creative expression" that has been instrumental in the growth of their business model to the cloud.

As they try to answer that call, some educators are looking beyond stand-alone lessons or separate programming classes and integrating coding into their core curriculum.

Beaver Country Day School (BCDS), a private school for students in grades 6-12 located just outside Boston, launched a school-wide coding initiative this academic year to help prepare their students for a new world of work and to, they hope, encourage more students to study computer science in college.

However, rather than just offering required stand-alone computer science courses, said Math Teacher and Department Head Rob MacDonald, they are integrating it into the core curriculum.

"I've actually been teaching a very successful coding elective for several years now," he said, "but I was thrilled when I got the okay to integrate coding into our core math courses."

MacDonald said he had been interested to hear about "interesting work around coding that was being done in schools, makerspaces, and extra-curricular programs, but very few places seemed willing to take the leap and make coding universal."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 11, 2013 12:47 AM
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