Blog Posts

Why Our Coding Students Are Superheroes

4/23/2021

April is one of our favorite months here at The Coding Space. Its showers bring May flowers as birds of a feather flock together to build their nests in the sun-dappled trees and we all wait in wild anticipation for summer. (Okay, okay, we know poetry isn’t exactly our strong suit.)

But we love April most of all because it’s when we celebrate National Superhero Day! This year, on April 28th, we’re calling on all of our students to dress up as their favorite superheroes in honor of this special day.

Why is this holiday so meaningful to us? Well, it lets us imagine a world where we are all superheroes. And what a world that would be. Superheroes are strong, powerful, passionate, and full of talent. They tackle challenges and overcome them. They are fighters and believers. They help others and care about our world. Actually, we don’t have to stretch our imaginations too far because to us, that sounds a lot like our students.

Every week our students come to class and show us their individual talents, their strengths, what makes them unique. They bravely take on new coding challenges. They’re kind to one another and make cool projects about helping others like in our Code 4 Change challenge. And they have a pretty amazing superpower: they know how to code.

Through code, we can impact communities: building a website that connects neighbors so they can share goods or deliver groceries to the elderly. We can solve world problems: programming a crowdfunding app to support public policy advocacy. We can change a person’s day simply by coding a funny animation that makes them smile.

On Superhero Day, we’re asking our students to dress up as a way to remind themselves that whenever they are nervous or don’t think they can do something or feel vulnerable, they just need to conjure their inner armor (or cape or mask) and remember that they are special and strong and capable AND... they know how to code. We can’t wait for April 28th so our students can show the world once and for all the very awesome superheroes that they are.

Introducing a Summer of Coding Adventures: Which Will You Choose?

4/9/2021

little boy coding computer fun surprise

Summer is just a few months away, and we have an exciting line-up of summer coding programs planned here at The Coding Space. Between in-person sleepaway, sports, and day camps, we know families have lots of options to choose from this summer and that fitting everything in can be tough. That’s where The Coding Space comes in. With our flexible online options, continuing your child’s coding education over the summer has never been easier. Our virtual camps, mini camps, and classes will fit perfectly into your summer agenda, giving your child the best of both worlds.

Whatever your awesome plans are this summer, we’ve got your child’s coding time covered. Sending your kids to sleepaway camp? Celebrate their return with a week of coding fun from home. Planning on day camp all summer? We have evening and weekend classes that will help your child continue to hone their skills after an eventful day outdoors. Looking for a class designed just for your child and their friends? We offer year-round private lessons that are built around your needs and schedule.

Our goal in providing this flexibility is to allow your child the opportunity to continue developing their mind, attitude, and thought processes, all while enjoying everything that summer has to offer. Every camp and class we offer features project-based coding where students and campers make games, stories, and animations in Scratch or JavaScript, letting their creativity and imagination soar while learning the fundamentals of computer science. Group activities encourage kids to explore the great big world of STEM and interact with their peers from afar. Every session ends with time for students to reflect on their achievements, struggles, and goals.

Little girl coding smiling fun laughing

Our half-day camp has the added benefit of extended hands-on activities (ranging from science experiments and scavenger hunts to virtual relay races and yoga) and an elective period where campers can choose from a plethora of subjects that interest them, including 3D modeling, music sequencing, graphic novel design, and much more. For a taste of what camp will look like, check out our blog post from last summer. We’re busy building on that foundation, adding in new electives, activities, challenges, and chances to win the ultimate prize: The Coding Space Cup. We had such a blast last summer and can’t wait to continue the tradition.

This summer, choose the coding adventure that fits your child and your schedule. We can’t wait to see you in class!

Grow With Us During Seasons of Code: Spring

3/24/2021

Seasons of Code is back with a new season of fun coding challenges for coders of all ages and skill levels. This free source of daily coding inspiration was created to keep kids honing their skills and exploring the magic of coding, even outside of class. In Seasons of Code: Spring, a new spring-themed prompt will be revealed on our page each day during Spring Break, giving young coders direction and opportunities to learn something new, all at a pace that works for them. Coders can look forward to challenges like creating a game about bike riding, making a project featuring a rain effect, and much more!

Anyone can participate in Seasons of Code. Just have your child go to this Scratch page daily between March 27th and April 10th to see the latest prompt. Once they’ve made a project, we encourage them to add it to our Scratch studio to inspire other students.

We can’t wait to see all of the creativity and imagination that comes out of Seasons of Code: Spring. Good luck and keep coding!

Code 4 Change: Build a Better World with The Coding Space

3/9/2021

We believe that coders have the power to change the world. This belief is the core of our Code 4 Change initiative, biannual challenges that ask coders of all ages to use their powers for good and apply tech-based solutions to real-world problems.

Over the last year, our world has changed dramatically. This has been a period of hardship and upheaval, but it’s also been a time of incredible community-driven support and creative problem-solving, especially in tech. From students using 3D printers to create face shields for healthcare workers to companies like Dyson using their engineering expertise to design and produce new ventilators, it’s clear that ingenuity and kindness still abound. And we at The Coding Space believe that coders can be a part of the solution.

Coding can build a better world. It can make us safer, more sustainable, and more equitable. That’s why, this month, we’re empowering coders everywhere to put their ideas into action with our third Code 4 Change challenge: Build a Better World.

What is Code 4 Change: Build a Better World?
Drawing on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, coders are invited to use their innovation, creativity, and resourcefulness to address a global issue: How can we use code to distribute food to the hungry? To help stop the outbreak of future pandemics? To support activists in their pursuit of equality? Whether it’s on a local or global level, we’re encouraging participants to program prototypes of their creative solutions for real issues facing our world.

Who is invited to participate?
Coders of all ages and skill levels are invited to participate, both inside and outside of our classes. Group, team, and family projects are also encouraged.

How will it work?
Registration opens March 22nd. Once signed up, participants can begin working at any time. In class, our teachers will introduce the challenge beginning the week of April 5th. Students will then have four weeks to work on their projects. On May 7th, we will ask participants to upload their work to a shared platform where other coders and their families will have the chance to interact with the projects and ultimately vote for Coders’ Choice, the project that they feel best showcases both impressive coding skills and a solution to a real-world problem. The TCS team will reveal this winner, as well as winners in several technical categories chosen by our instructors, during a live virtual event on Sunday, May 16th. The projects will then be featured on the TCS website for future students and classes to experience.

What will the winners receive?
Category winners will receive a $50 donation made in their name to support a select philanthropic organization embodying the spirit of Code 4 Change.

How can parents help participating coders?
We encourage you and your child to explore the Sustainable Development Goals before deciding on which to address. Check out this resource about discussing SDGs with kids, and think about what goals they may already have a passion for or might like to know more about. We love when students work on their projects at home (parental decisions about screen time permitting), so you may find them bringing it up in conversation with you as they work or even asking for your help. These are global issues that affect everyone, so working together to solve them is expected and encouraged.

If your child is wondering what’s possible, check out these examples of how programmers are tackling these Sustainable Development Goals already:

Clean Water: In Scratch, the game Clean Water For All teaches how to care for our oceans through proper recycling.
Zero Hunger: Online, Free Rice is a categorized quiz game, in which correctly answered questions cause advertisements to appear on the screen and trigger a financial payment to the World Food Programme.
Climate Action: In games, Tree Planet 2 rewards players who raise a digital tree with a real tree planted in a forest! In the past three years, they have planted 240,000 real trees.
No Poverty; Reduced Inequalities: In app development, Upsolve is designed to support low-income Americans through the complex process of filing for bankruptcy. Read more about their journey here.
Reduced Inequalities; Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions: In AI and machine learning, The Algorithmic Justice League, created by Joy Buolamwini, is fighting for accountability in coding and against bias in machine learning. Hear Joy speak about it here.
Life on Land: In environmental tech and machine learning, the Smart Wildfire Sensor uses machine learning to predict which forested areas are most susceptible to wildfires, providing an early warning to fire departments. This device was developed by two high school students!

The possibilities really are endless. We are so excited about this chance to spark the creativity of coders everywhere toward bettering our world and to celebrate their work as a community.

If your child is interested in participating, please visit our website to learn more and sign up. We can’t wait to see their creativity and innovation in action.

7 STEM Leaders You Should Know: Celebrating Women's History Month

3/4/2021

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting a small handful of the women who have impacted STEM fields far and wide. Whether they contributed to the development of early computer science, made strides in mathematics, or expanded the study of space exploration, we honor the women of yesterday and today for their work in paving the way for the STEM superheroes of tomorrow.

Ada Lovelace: The first female computer programmer

Though she lived and worked back in the 1840s, when computer programming was in its infancy and women in science were frowned upon, Ada, a talented mathematician and daughter of poet Lord Byron, was responsible for writing the world’s first algorithm for an early computing machine. Nearly 150 years later, the U.S. Department of Defense honored her contributions to computer science by naming a newly developed computer language "Ada," after her.

Angelica Ross: Transgender rights advocate and founder of TransTech

Like many who've experienced a gender nonconforming childhood, Angelica Ross knows what it’s like to feel out of place. That changed when she discovered the breadth of possibilities within STEM. Now, Ross wants to help others find that same sense of belonging. As a self-taught coder, transgender rights advocate, and the founder and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises, her goal is to help those facing barriers in education and in the workplace, with a special focus on trans and gender nonconforming people, to find employment in STEM fields through hands-on training, career development, peer coaching, and more.

Photo by Miss Ross, Inc.

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller: The first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller, a Catholic nun, was a pioneer of higher education, studying at a number of colleges and universities in the 1960s, including Dartmouth. There, she contributed to the development of the BASIC computer language, which allowed anyone who could learn the language to develop custom software. In 1965, she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science in the United States. She later went on to found the computer science department at Clarke College in Iowa, a position she held for twenty years.

Gladys West: The mathematician who helped invent GPS

After graduating as valedictorian from Virginia State College in 1948, West launched a career in mathematics and computer science, serving as both a programmer and project manager of satellite data analysis. Her work led to award-winning studies, commendations, and important discoveries related to what we know about the shape of our planet as well as the motion of others. Her complex algorithms and precise modeling provided the data that ultimately became the basis of today’s Global Positioning System.

Carol Shaw: A pioneering video game programmer

To Carol Shaw, a video game designer working for Atari during the height of their popularity, the video game industry was a boys’ club. When male colleagues suggested her skills were best used for cosmetic purposes, such as cartridge design, Shaw instead got to work developing a variety of games, including River Raid, a game largely considered to be a masterpiece of game design for the Atari 2600 console. Shaw’s influence continues to inspire young designers today and in 2017, Shaw received the Industry Icon Award at The Game Awards.

Annie Easley: Computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist

When Annie Easley joined NASA in 1955 as a “human computer” doing complex mathematical calculations for researchers, she was one of only four African Americans employed at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. As technology advanced and computers began replacing the work she’d done by hand, Easley became an adept computer scientist. Her contributions to alternative power technology research include creating and implementing the code that led to the development of early hybrid car batteries as well as the Centaur upper-stage rocket.

Photograph by Paul Olding

Kathleen Martinez: The archaeologist on the trail of Cleopatra

Raised in the Dominican Republic, Kathleen Martinez dreamed of becoming an archaeologist and finding the lost tomb of Cleopatra. For years, she researched the enigmatic queen in her free time and developed a theory of where to find the tomb. When Martinez’s proposal was approved and she was finally given the opportunity to excavate, she jumped at the chance, ignoring the scrutiny and criticism of a wary scientific community. But fifteen years later, Martinez has proved the skeptics wrong: her discoveries, including two mummies found within the ancient temple of Taposiris Magna, support her theory. Today, Martinez is closer than ever to discovering the truth about Cleopatra’s final resting place.

Building a Growth Mindset Vocabulary

2/8/2021

Does your child talk to themselves? If so, they’re not alone. Research shows that most people talk to themselves and not only that, but self-directed talk can actually be good for you. But to reap the benefits, it’s important to remember that what we say to ourselves matters. Self-talk is about more than telling yourself “you can do it!”; it’s about building a growth mindset by leveraging the power of words to lead you down the path to real change.

We at The Coding Space believe that intelligence can be developed and strive to create a love of learning--and of overcoming obstacles--in our coding students by helping them develop that growth mindset. As teachers, we do this through the Socratic Method, which uses asking questions as a means to help students find their own answers. In debugging programs, students discover that “wrong” is merely a stepping stone to right. As students are empowered to stick with a problem until they’ve solved it, that growth mindset is challenged and developed.

But this work doesn’t happen only in our classroom. There are steps parents can take to help children build a growth mindset at home, at school, and in life. Here are some tips from our executive functioning partners at Private Prep:

Flip the Script
Start by being mindful of how your child talks to themselves. Take note of any language that they commonly use to put themselves down and, if possible, challenge that perception in the moment. Ask them to come up with an alternate statement that creates opportunities for both accountability and self-compassion. This exercise asks kids to dig deeper to find both an actionable item and a truth that reminds them how capable they truly are.

Use an Affirmation Statement
If your child is already thoughtful about their self-talk, take the next step by encouraging them to celebrate their strengths and use them as a touchpoint when they are struggling. Start by listing some of their positive attributes and asking them to add to that list. These could be tied to a specific area of life or generally. Ask your child to pick the three that resonate most and incorporate them into a statement that they can say to themselves when they need a boost. Here are a few examples that have helped our students find confidence when they need it:

When I take my time and reflect on the best approach, I always get it done.
I invite good things by being kind, positive, and open to new ideas.
I am a hard worker who knows what she wants and has a plan to get there.

In coding, as in life, it’s important to focus on the process and on those things over which we have control. When we allow a negative thought to take hold, we miss an opportunity for growth. Encourage children to be kind to themselves, and to be patient with the process of learning.

A version of this blog first appeared on Private Prep, a sister brand of The Coding Space.

Welcome to Spring Semester 2021

2/5/2021

Dear Coding Space Family,

Welcome to Spring Semester! We’re thrilled to kick off 2021 teaching your wonderful children new coding concepts, thinking patterns, and mindsets. There’s much to look forward to and reflect on from our past semester.

We saw a lot of engagement with our hands-on activities and challenges over the course of the fall and will be continuing to introduce new material to our classes this spring. In October, we ran a new Code 4 Change challenge where our students created inspiring projects to help younger kids learn important concepts like reading and math. Over the winter break, we hosted an epic mini camp that allowed us to spend the holidays with nearly 100 enthusiastic coders.

As a company, we’ve spent many months thinking long and hard about our values, including our commitment to racial justice and educational equity. This spring, we will be concentrating on bolstering our scholarship program as well as seeking out new partnerships to reach students in communities with limited access to coding education. We wholeheartedly believe that teaching a child how to code equips them with skills and attitudes to help break out of prescribed societal barriers and take on the world by storm, and we’re looking forward to getting to work.

We’ve also been working behind the scenes on an exciting addition to our curriculum that we are piloting this spring: our very own learning management system. My Coding Space houses over 90 original Untutorials (our core curriculum that helps students tackle multi-step projects by using critical thinking and problem-solving skills). While the platform introduces helpful features like filtering and search, it does something much more powerful: it captures progress. From class to class and semester to semester, we’ll have a complete record of our students’ accomplishments, breakthroughs, and gong-worthy celebrations—and as importantly, we’ll be able to share that journey with parents. To read more about all this new platform has to offer, check out our blog.

We’re energized by the progress we’ve made so far this academic year and are very much looking forward to what the future holds. Thanks for being a part of our cherished community. We’ll see you online!

Sincerely,

Maddy Carter
Director of Curriculum & Operations

Scott Levenson
Managing Partner

Introducing My Coding Space: a New Learning Platform

2/4/2021

After many months of hard work, we here at The Coding Spare are excited to introduce our new learning platform, My Coding Space. From tracking their progress in projects and classes, to providing opportunities to grow their skills outside of the classroom and build community, My Coding Space will be a powerful partner for our students, and their parents, throughout their coding journey. Keep reading for a brief introduction and tour of this one-of-a-kind platform.

Capturing Progress

One of My Coding Space’s most powerful features is its ability to capture the progress of our students. As students move from dragging and dropping blocks in Scratch, to coding a two-player game in WoofJS, to building websites from a blank page, we’ll see it all—and so will parents. From class to class and semester to semester, we’ll have a complete record of our students’ accomplishments, breakthroughs, and gong-worthy celebrations.

My Coding Space also allows for clear communication with teachers, including access to feedback on projects. Within this system, teachers can view student progress, provide feedback and support outside of class, and approve finished projects.

Student Marking Off Progress

Teacher & Student Progress View

Teacher Approving Progress & Providing Feedback

Tackling New Challenges

My Coding Space houses over 90 original Untutorials for skills levels ranging from Young Beginner to Advanced. Untutorials are the cornerstone of our curriculum, listing the high-level tasks or features students will need to complete a game, animation, or application—but we intentionally leave out how to do them. The result is an opportunity for students to understand the smaller components that make up a larger problem, while leaving the solving of the problem entirely up to them (with the help of our teachers, of course).

The Coding Space Untutorials

Going Above and Beyond

While our Untutorials offer a solid starting point for students to explore new ideas and concepts, there are times when students will want to go off script and create their own project. We value opportunities for students to explore what they’ve learned in new ways and actively make space for this. We also understand how important it is to ensure that our students’ learning doesn’t stagnate by continuing to repeat the same concepts. When they’re ready to push past their comfort zones, we’re here to support them. Creative projects allow students to reinforce what they’ve learned while fully embracing their unique and authentic selves.

To help us prepare for this eventuality, we’ve incorporated a unique planning tool into the platform where students will map out the steps of the project they’d like to make—essentially crafting their own Untutorials. This will not only teach fundamental computational skills like abstraction and decomposition, as well as planning and project management skills, it will help keep them on task and encourage a deeper understanding of what they’re learning along the way. After students create their Untutorials, they’ll mark off their progress as they work to complete the project. Finally, they’ll have the option to share their Untutorials with other students, building community throughout their coding adventures.

Project Building Tool

Building a Community

To further encourage self-expression and community, My Coding Space contains a profile feature where students can add a profile image, display name, and a little bit about what makes them unique. The profile area also allows students to take notes and receive internal emails so they can confirm accounts or receive messages from their teacher. All messages funnel through The Coding Space’s private email account that is only accessible to our teachers.

Student Profile

Over the next few months we will be rolling out a community page where students can share their work with their peers as well as an internal forum where they can ask and answer coding questions, introducing new opportunities to debug, share, and collaborate.

Thank you for taking a moment to tour My Coding Space. Over the next few weeks, teachers will be introducing students to this platform and available to answer questions. Parents are also invited to share feedback on the new platform here. We’re excited by all the possibilities of this new platform and have many developments in store, so look out for updates!

Give Back and Get Coding This MLK Jr. Day

1/8/2021

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?'”
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This January 18th, join TCS for a special one-day virtual coding event in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Coders will embark on cool STEM explorations and coding challenges as well as games, activities, and more. Plus, we’ve planned something special.

To honor the Civil Rights leader’s life and legacy, our thoughts around this holiday are imbued with how we can help spread the love and humanity that connects us all. Just as we work to create inclusive and supportive learning environments for each of our coders, we encourage all of our students to be agents of positive social change in their communities and beyond.

To celebrate their impact, every camper who has a plan in place to do an act of service by the start of camp on January 18th will receive a $10 credit towards a future class or camp. Just reply to your registration confirmation email with a description of what your child will do to help someone else and the credit will be applied to your account.

Not sure where to start? Here are some suggested activities:

Donate clothes
Plant a tree
Donate used/unwanted toys
Give books to local hospitals or daycare
Start a school recycling program
Hold a collection drive
Make handmade cards
Do chores or work for neighbors

The possibilities are truly endless. We hope your child will take advantage of this opportunity and share with us in class how they’ve decided to honor MLK Jr.’s legacy on this important day.

Not signed up for our MLK Jr. Mini Camp yet? Register here.

Announcing the Code 4 Change: Kids Teaching Kids Winners!

12/15/2020

This past weekend marked the end of our second Code 4 Change challenge: Kids Teaching Kids. This event asked our coders to teach early education students important academic concepts in math, reading, and more through creative games and projects. After a month of hard work, participants submitted their projects for judging and joined us online for a special live finale event where we revealed the winners and celebrated the hard work of all our coders.

If you missed the finale, you can still check out the recording here and the full list of winners below. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing qualifying projects with real early education classes, but in the meantime, you can continue to explore all the projects on our website.

Please join us in giving all our participants a big round of applause for their hard work and creativity!

Best Visual Design

Isla, age 9
"The Five Senses"

From the judges: With a beautiful background, clean and clear icons, and lovely golden stars as rewards, Isla's project has excellent visual design.

Best Sound Design

Jordan, age 7
"Jordan's Awesome Space Adventure!"

From the judges: Jordan's friendly little dog teaches you about space with charming voice clips and entrancing background music.

Best Game Design

Brianna M., age 8
"Math Car Race Game"

From the judges: The simple concept of a race with math problems mixed in makes for an exciting game!

Most Educational

Manya, age 10
"Math: Add, Subtract, Multiply & Divide"

From the judges: Manya's project is bursting with helpful information about a variety of math concepts along with clear diagrams and easy to use controls.

Most Imaginative

Sasha L., age 8
"Octo-Rhyme"

From the judges: The drums, dancing fish, voice clips, and colorful effects all come together in Sasha's project to teach reading through rhyming.

Best Scratch

Charlotte K., age 10
"Shaping Up With Charlotte"

From the judges: Shaping Up With Charlotte combines clear instructions, a cute monkey, and clear design for a superb Scratch project which teaches all about shapes.

Best WoofJS

Liv B., age 8
"Spelling!"

From the judges: Liv's creative spelling project uses cute icons and well-written Javascript code to teach basic spelling.

Coders' Choice

India F., age 12
"Fun Afterschool Practice"

Coders' Choice was selected by TCS coders and their friends and family as the project that best showcases both impressive coding skills and strong educational value.

From the judges: India's Fun Afterschool Practice allows students to practice math or reading to help a cute egg hatch.