Overview 

There is never enough time to cover all curriculum expectations in all subjects, especially with any degree of depth. This is why it is important to spend your time on projects that will cover multiple expectations over multiple subject areas. This way, curriculum is being covered while more time may be given to students to delve deeper into concepts and ideas, in order to understand them at a deeper level. This website gives you a variety of coding projects that allow students to not only improve their coding skills, but that also require students to gain a deeper grasp of ideas and concepts in order to represent them through code.  

Classroom Practice 

Each project is an example that teachers can use to demonstrate what is possible, and to give them the code that would be needed to complete it. Teachers should make a copy of the project, take out the code that they want their students to come up with, and then share that project with students so that they can “remix” it themselves. The main curriculum expectations that each project will hit are included with each project, so they can easily be added to a rubric, etc. 

Significance for ICT Leaders 

The idea of using coding to teach other curriculum areas is important for ICT leaders in schools and districts, because of the fact that coding is now required in both Math and Science curricula. However, very few teachers are able to code, so providing them with ready-made projects that they can use with their students will hopefully allow more teachers to actually teach coding in a meaningful way. As you can see from the coding expectations in both curricula, coding was not meant as a standalone topic, but was meant to be used as a tool to better understand math and science. By using this website, ICT leaders will be able to support teachers in making this a happen and provide authentic, engaging coding experiences for students. 

Resources for Further Exploration 

• https://www.edutopia.org/blog/15-ways-teaching-students-coding-vicki-davis  

• https://www.eschoolnews.com/2018/06/13/20-ideas-for-teaching-coding-in-math-science-social-studies-and-ela/  

• https://blog.mimio.com/how-coding-can-help-you-teach-reading-math-and-science  

• https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/teachers-essential-guide-to-coding-in-the-classroom  

• https://www.science-on-stage.eu/material/coding-in-stem-education  

• https://blog.scientix.eu/2019/04/tips-for-implementing-coding-activities-in-stem-classes/  

• https://outreach.tvolearn.com/codingintheclassroom/