In class this week we learnt about coding and educational games. Coding is something that I have a little bit of experience with, my dad introduced me and my siblings to CodeAcademy (https://www.codecademy.com/). Through this website, you can learn different coding languages and create games or other fun tasks with code. This is what code academy looks like.
However, in class, we learnt more about how to apply learning code in a more academic way as well as games that can be used to learn new things. During our hands-on class time, we were able to play around with coding through different games. I chose the Frozen-inspired coding game where you use different directions to tell Anna and Elsa how to move around the screen and at the end we designed a snowflake. It took a lot of computational thinking, which is something we learnt about, to process how to use the code in the most effective and efficient way. There was one step that I remember working through where instead of using the bracket to repeat the same step multiple times, I just copy and pasted the step multiple times. This was a moment where I had to rethink coding and how much I need to think it through before I think I am done.
One thing we learned that I found really interesting was computational thinking. This is the process of analyzing all information, recognizing patterns, and then developing a way to deliver the information. An example we had in class was the Peanut Butter and Jam video, where a father asks his children to write step-by-step instructions on making a sandwich. Through this activity, the kids were able to learn who you need to be when giving instructions in order for someone to preform them how you would like. This goes for people and machines. Machines and coding are both very literal and will do exactly what they are told. This video we were able to learn how specific we need to be when writing code for it to execute exactly what we want.
Check out this link to see what I made in the end! https://studio.code.org/c/2347473754?qr=true