If you’re looking to get students coding this school year the folks at Learning.com have a totally free, nationwide competition for elementary and middle school students. Code-a-Thon will be held from November 14-18, 2016 and is open to schools across the country. The goal of this special event is to provide K-8 students with an introduction to coding skills. The winning school will also receive a one-year subscription to EasyTech and EasyCode Premium, Learning.com’s digital literacy and coding curriculum for grades K-8.
Code-a-Thon Coding Event
It is certainly easy to participate in Code-a-Thon. All you have to do is have your school register to receive free access to EasyTech and EasyCode Basic. Then, students log in and code their way through a number of challenges. Each challenge increases in levels of difficulty and kids earn points for every successfully completed challenge. The school with the highest average number of points per student will win Code-a-Thon regardless of the size of the school.
Digital Literacy Curriculum
Haven’t heard of EasyTech? It’s a self‐paced digital literacy curriculum for grades K‐8. EasyTech is full of interactive lessons, journals and quizzes to help students develop digital literacy skills. EasyCode offers K-8 educators a fun, game-based and coding program that features 200+ student challenges. There is also progress monitoring. So now teachers can quickly and efficiently introduce coding skills to their elementary and middle school students. Code-a-Thon originated as part of Learning.com’s pledge to support Computer Science for All (CSforAll), President Obama’s call-to-action for more computer science opportunities for all K-12 schools.
Code-a-Thon is being held from November 14-18, 2016 and schools are also encouraged to use #codeathon2016 on social media to share their progress and interact with other participants. Schools can register for Code-a-Thon from Oct. 4 – Nov. 9 by visiting their website!
If you are checking out this post after the dates of this event – don’t worry! Here’s a favorite resource on coding in the classroom I know you will also love: 8 Must-Try Coding Websites & Apps for Students