HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2015-05-13, Page 1212 News Record • Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Catholic school board hosts coding session for area students
Students incorporate math into
workshop
Galen Simmons
Postmedia Network
Since technology such as
tablets and laptops are
becoming more common-
place in the classroom,
members of the Huron -
Perth Catholic District
School Board (HPCDSB) are
constantly looking for ways
to further enhance both the
usage of that technology as
well as students' under-
standing of it.
On May 7, Dr. George
Gadanidis, a professor of
mathematics education at
Western University, visited
the HPCDSB office in Dublin
to spend a full day with stu-
dents in Grades 6, 7 and 8
from schools throughout the
district to teach them a bit of
computer coding, while
simultaneously teaching
them a few complicated
mathematical concepts usu-
ally reserved for the Grade
12 curriculum.
"What we're doing is we're
introducing kids to two
things - cool mathematics
ideas and also computer
coding as well, the two go
hand-in-hand," Gadanidis
explained. "What the coding
does is allows them to play
with these ideas interac-
tively, so they can create
their own little programs.
From a teaching point of
view, it's another way to rep-
resent these ideas, so you
can represent them with
code."
Besides being able to
teach students more compli-
cated mathematics through
visually practical lines of
code on a computer screen,
Gadanidis says students are
learning a skill that has
become in huge demand
over the past decade, a skill
that students will be able to
use and build off of for the
rest of their lives.
"(Coding) is everywhere
around us, it's in all the apps
you use. It's like having a car
and never knowing how it
works underneath," he said.
"What we are trying to do is
we all use technology, but
very few of us can edit it and
very few of us can create it.
So we're giving kids hands-
on experiences in how to
create their own technology
so they can build apps
themselves:'
The day -long coding event
has been run for students of
all ages, the youngest of
which were in Grade 1. In a
few cases, Gadanidis added,
some of the Grade 6, 7 and 8
students who had previously
taken the coding course
have actually taught their
younger peers.
The coding workshop in
Dublin last week began with
Gadanidis teaching students
Galen Simmons Postmedia Network
Huron -Perth Catholic District School Board students Adam Wingert (left), Jared Ducharme, Myles
Novotny, Reagan Michiels, Allison Coles and Sylvia Masse learn how to use the computer coding
program Scratch, as Supervisor Karen Hastings and instructor Dr. George Gadanidis look on.
how to use a program called
Scratch, a kid -friendly app
that allows students to
design blocks of code that
move a cartoon cat around
their screen.
"It's nice for young kids
'centrad Huron
The Municipality of Central Huron is pleased to announce their annual Central Huron Donation
Fund. The Municipality will again set aside funds to assist and promote community-based
non-profit organizations. Funding is also available for national and international non-profit
organizations whose programs demonstrate a direct benefit for the residents of our municipality.
To Qualify
Organizations must be non-profit. Proposed programs or events must clearly demonstrate a direct
social or economic benefit for residents of Central Huron. Successful organizations will be required
to submit a post project report identifying the use of the funds.
Application
Applications for funding should include:
+:' Description of program or event
+a
+4
:4
:0
Date of program or event
Organization budget for proposed program or event
Targeted resident group, if appropriate
Supporting information including statistics for previous similar projects
Amount of funding requested, specifying whether a cash or in-kind donation is required
Deadline for applications must be received by 12:00 noon Friday, May 29, 2015.
If your organization has questions or comments they should be directed to the Municipal office at
519-482-3997.
Applications are to be addressed as follows:
"Central Huron Donation Fund"
Attention:
Brenda Maclsaac, Clerk
Municipality of Central Huron
P.O. Box 400, 23 Albert Street
Clinton, Ontario NOM 1L0
The Municipality reserves the right to fund only programs or events as deemed appropriate.
because they don't have to
type code. You don't need to
worry about spelling mis-
takes, you don't need syntax,
right?" he said.
Next, the students learned
some text -based coding
through a program called
Python. While Scratch allows
students to get a very basic
grasp on coding, it has its
limitations, whereas learn-
ing Python gives students
more freedom to design
what they want.
At the end of the day,
Gadinidis will use the knowl-
edge of coding just learned
by students to teach them
sophisticated mathematical
concepts such as the bino-
mial theorem.
"If you take a coin and you
flip it, it's head or tails, flip it
again and it's heads or tails.
So flip two in a row you can
get two heads, two tails, or a
head and a tails. So if you
count how many of those
you get after you do it lots of
times, you find that the
heads and tails come up
more often then the two
heads or two tails. So why is
that? We explore that ques-
tion through a model on the
computer, and we've done
that in Grade 1 classrooms
by doing that on cards. This
eventually leads to what you
learned in Grade 12, which is
the binomial theorem,"
Gadinidis explained.
Gadanidis has spent
many years conducting field
research in conjunction
with teachers in classrooms
both in Ontario and in Bra-
zil. He's been hosting these
coding events for students
from different school boards
in Ontario for the past sev-
eral years, and this fall he
will be unveiling a coding
curriculum book for teach-
ers and parents to imple-
ment in the classroom and
at home.
For students who attend
these coding workshops,
Gadinidis says there is as
much as $200 per school in
funding available from the
Fields Institute in Toronto, a
mathematics think-tank, to
allow students and teachers
to organize coding clubs and
competitions in each of their
individual schools. At these
coding competitions or
events, students are required
to teach their parents and
guests some coding to
receive the $200 grant for
their school.
The underlying idea to
using coding to teach math
is to get students excited
about what they're learning
and have them not only be
able to use their new-found
skills both inside and out of
the classroom, but also to
teach these skills to fellow
students and their slightly
less tech -savvy parents.
"The group that's here
today are students who are
identified as bright or gifted
and they need unique
opportunities to be together,
but also to be challenged in a
new way. The coding project
provides that opportunity,"
explained Vince MacDon-
ald, the director of education
for HPCDSB. "They are
engaged in learning a pro-
gramming language and
they use that for creating
animations, for creating GIF
files, or whatever. Research
shows students who are
bright and gifted need the
opportunity to get together
with like-minded children."
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