Tag Archives: computer science

Coding Education

16-Year-Old Takes Coding to the Next Level

When you learn coding early on, you can impact your community in a variety of ways, even at a young age. Consider a recent article for the San Jose Mercury News titled “Coding: 16-year-old Fremont student writes AP test-prep book, creates online course.”

Sharon Noguchi of the San Jose Mercury News writes, “Moksh Jawa, 16, captures the essence of Silicon Valley startup thinking and energy. ‘Why not?’ might be his motto. As a seventh-grader, he studied up on the Internet and taught himself coding. As a freshman, after studying on his own, he passed the AP Computer Science A exam with a 5, the highest score possible. As a sophomore, because his Fremont high school didn’t teach coding, he developed his own online course and shepherded classmates through it. As a junior, he distilled those lessons into a 450-page test-prep book, now sold on Amazon. What’s next? Lots more. Jawa is a young man on a mission to spread the wonders and dispel fears of computer science. Quickly. On Tuesday, leaders of tech, government and education petitioned Congress to invest in computer science education. Even if Congress responds, it could take years for schools to see any funds, juggle schedules, hire teachers and enroll students — even as the University of California steadfastly refuses to credit computer science as anything other than an elective course, a stance that discourages high schoolers from enrolling. But Jawa is in too much of a hurry to wait for institutional action. ‘I’ve never met a Mark Zuckerberg or a Sheryl Sandberg, but that’s the type of drive Moksh has,’ said Mike Jan, who advises the computer science club that Jawa started at Washington High. His interest started in middle school, when his father gave him a link to Codeacademy, an online coding boot camp. He learned Python, an intermediate programming language. ‘I just fell in love with computer science,’ Jawa said. He found everything he needed to know online: ‘Every time you encounter a problem, the chances are that someone else has, too, and has figured it out.’”

If you’re looking for quality, customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

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Lack of Computer Science Education in Schools still a major problem

Check this link for a thorough description of the problem facing our students now:  http://www.computinginthecore.org/issues-solutions.

Basically, the United States is WAY behind in the field of Computer Science education, which happens to be the field that opens most doors in terms of finding work in the 21st Century.  As the above link describes, “No other subject will open as many doors in the 21st Century, regardless of a student’s ultimate field of study or occupation, as computer science.”

While some schools do teach basic computer skills, they lack the conceptual depth of instruction that is valued in the work place.  This is the gap that we fill.  We focus on computational thinking, advanced problem solving, and using logic to solve problems with unclear solutions and many possible outcomes, just the way actual problems in the real world usually function.

We have quoted Carnegie Melon’s computer science department below to provide a more complete definition of Computational Thinking.  Their site link is here:  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~CompThink/

“Computational thinking is a way of solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science. To flourish in today’s world, computational thinking has to be a fundamental part of the way people think and understand the world.

Computational thinking means creating and making use of different levels ofabstraction, to understand and solve problems more effectively.

Computational thinking means thinking algorithmically and with the ability to apply mathematical concepts such as induction to develop more efficient, fair, and secure solutions.

Computational thinking means understanding the consequences of scale, not only for reasons of efficiency but also for economic and social reasons.”

 

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Did anybody see what college-age interns who code are making these days? These coders all started young.

Check out the link below for the article, and the graph below to see what College aged interns are making in the tech industry.  Almost all these coders all started coding in elementary and middle school.  Not bad for a college job!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/12/05/tech_internship_salaries_an_even_longer_list_that_will_make_your_eyes_water.html?wpsrc=fol_tw

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