Tynker Coding
There are more than 500,000 current openings in computing, and this field represents the #1 source of new wages in the US. These jobs grow at twice the rate of all other jobs. In the US we do not have enough graduates in computing, STEM or Computer Science to fill this demand. The goal of this project is to increase the exposure our students have to coding. Next year our Middle School will have a laptop for every student. My hope is that our students will have the opportunity to integrate computer science and coding into their core content classes AND have another way to show their learning through the power of coding. The more exposure a student has to coding the more likely they are to pursue a path through high school and college that leads to the profession of Computer Science. Tynker is an easy to use platform that ANY teacher can integrate into their classes, with or without a background in Computer Science. It is a benefit to our students and community if we have more teachers who are comfortable and familiar with Computer Science and coding. The Tynker platform teaches coding and is used to program our drones and robots. Tynker is currently developing lessons for augmented and virtual reality, they will be one of the first platforms of computer science curriculum to have these lessons developed for students. If we are approved and able to purchase the license immediately we can start exploring Tynker at the end of the school year AND offer staff professional development during our end of year PD. SMS staff will go into the summer having ideas of how to incorporate cross-curricular coding projects with their students next year. Next school year my goal is that we use Tynker lessons during FLEX and study hall for all students to have exposure to another platform and medium of coding. Tynker is fun and students love using it. As students and staff become comfortable and familiar with the platform we can create cross-curricular projects. There are STEM specific lessons that integrate into Science and Math courses. Our middle school ELA teachers do book projects, students could easily use Tynker to code their presentation on their book. The full access of a site license would also be used in our Makerspace with our drones, robots, and iPads.