I’ve been using this blog and Pinterest to promote the importance of teaching programming to students for awhile now. One of the benefits that I see is how coding makes natural connections to Systems Thinking. Some of my favorite FREE programming apps are: Daisy the Dinosaur, Cargo-Bot, and Hopscotch. While these are definitely fun apps, … Read more
First of all, I have a confession to make; I know very little about programming. What I do know is that it is wonderful for teaching problem solving skills and logic. I also know that those skills, and programming specifically, are in high demand in our nation’s job market. So it makes sense that we … Read more
In the past, I have posted about some options for kids that are available to help them learn about programming: Codecademy and the iOS apps Cargo-Bot and Daisy the Dinosaur. I also briefly mentioned Gamestar Mechanic in one of my posts. Many of my 5th graders have been using Gamestar Mechanic, which you can … Read more
Daisy the Dinosaur is an iPad app that teaches basic programming to young children. It has a Challenge Mode, in which the user is given 5 challenges that increase in difficulty, beginning with programming the dinosaur to walk forward. In Freeplay Mode, the user can experiment with several different commands, including making Daisy grow or … Read more