Spaces still available
“This is just a fabulous stepping stone” into the world of computer coding, says Gay Allison, a Coding for Kids board member.
The Coding for Kids summer program at Stevensville is underway and more and more kids are realizing that this stuff is fun!
So far, 75 kids, first grade through high school, have registered for 100 spots, according to Loey Knapp, co-director.
Jamie Robertson, routes director for Adventure Cycling in Missoula, just finished teaching a mapping class. His six students, grades 8th-12, learned how to use QGIS, a free open source geological data tool. They took the data, analyzed it, did geo processing, and created cartographic products. Damon made a statewide trails map, Shelby made a map of the North Atlantic Abyssal Zone with land forms and species of the deep sea; Angus made a map of national park visitations for 2020; Lucas made a map of McDonalds location density; and Alexandria made a map of population density in Montana.
Stevensville teacher Andrea Mooney’s Code-a-Game class of eight 4-6 graders created their own games or stories with characters and dialog. In this class, the kids learned drag & drop coding to create video games, storytelling and art, including sound and music.
This year, Coding for Kids got several grants so they were able to expand and add more classes for high school ages. Some of the new classes are “Build a Drone & Fly It”, “3-D Design – Build a Character”, JavaScript and a film class in which the students can design and edit a film.
Elementary and middle school classes include three levels of robotics, digital art, beginning and advanced game programming, biomimicry, and development of a sound and light show with Arduino.
According to the codingstevensville.net website, reasons to teach robotics in schools include: introduces structured programming; increases creativity; prepares students for future technology; teaches children how to turn frustration into innovation; promotes inclusivity and teamsmanship.
Coding for Kids is a nonprofit organization that, in partnership with the Stevensville school, has been providing STEAM classes for elementary and middle school students since 2017 and is now expanding into high school and grades 1 & 2 for a full program for grades 1-12.
There are still a number of summer classes available. Registration for fall classes starts August 1. For a complete list of classes or for more information, visit codingstevensville.net.