That’s seven year-old Zora Ball, a cute but most importantly, a smart girl who is the youngest person ever to design a mobile app. Zora attends a science and technology in Philadelphia and she learned to design the program at her afterschool program, STEMnasium.
Some experts argue that kids should be learning computer coding along with reading and writing because we don’t have enough programmers in this country and that’s where Code.org comes in. This awesome website wants to ensure that our children learn have the ability to learn computer sciences.
Code.org is a non-profit dedicated to growing computer science education by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer programming. We believe computer science should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry and algebra.
Our goals include:
Bringing Computer Science classes to every K-12 school in the United States, especially in urban and rural neighborhoods.
Demonstrating the successful use of online curriculum in public school classrooms
Changing policies in all 50 states to categorize C.S. as part of the math/science “core” curriculum
Harnessing the collective power of the tech community to celebrate and grow C.S. education worldwide
To increase the representation of women and students of color in the field of Computer Science.
Another organization that is in the community, bringing programming to kids form K-12 is Coder Dojo. On any Saturday around the country, volunteers teach kids how to do coding, create computer programs and games. Please check out their website for a location near you and please pass it on.
- How Code.org is extending computer science beyond ‘the lucky few’ (venturebeat.com)
- Kids and coding coming together (techi.com)
- Teaching your kids how to write computer programs (Marshallbrain.com