Kids Code Jeunesse
Kids Code Jeunesse have been supporting teachers and young people develop their digital skills with micro:bit since 2017, with the support of CA$6m funding from the CanCode federal initiative.
This funding enabled the organisation to scale rapidly in order to implement a far-reaching national programme, aimed at supporting the development of coding and digital skills in young people.
Following an enormously successful first two years, the team were awarded additional funding in 2019 to expand their programmes.
Programme highlights
- “Code. Create. Teach” was a series of 30 bi-lingual, full-day workshop sessions for teachers which were delivered in every Canadian province between 2018 and 2019
- These workshops included a 90 minute session on micro:bit which enabled teachers to quickly explore activities such as rock, paper, scissors and step counter
- In-school workshops were delivered in over 2,230 classrooms, attended by students and supported by teachers across the urban centres in each province, with a reach of 50,000 students
- Classes were also provided with a set of micro:bits to keep, with 23,000 micro:bits circulated throughout the workshop series
- Further material, activities and resources were made available to teachers online to support their students' further exploration
The kids loved it and immediately asked when they can code the micro:bits again.
Teacher, Nova Scotia
Lessons and pedagogy
Prior to classroom workshops, teachers are provided with full lesson sets and activities to enable them to prepare the classroom and put students in pairs to work collaboratively.
The lesson format includes introductory material, such as unplugged activities, before introducing students to the concepts which are then further explored in a hands-on way, using coding editors and micro:bits.
Learning objectives include:
- Familiarity with physical computing through micro:bit.
- Familiarity with micro:bit block code sequences, modularisation and repetition.
- Familiarity with computational practices like planning and experimentation
The teacher-focused "Code. Create. Teach" CPD workhops also follow a similar format.
Kids Code Jeunesse also develop the art:bit app - a tool which facilitates animation, making the micro:bit easier to use for younger students. It is currently available for Chromebooks and soon to be available for iPads.
Impact and results
In a survey of teachers participating in the "Code. Create. Teach" workshops, they found that:
90% teachers believed coding and micro:bit will help to motivate student interest
96% would recommend the workshop to other teachers
87% were keen to continue using micro:bit in their practice
Kid's Code Jeunesse estimate that their in-class workshops, teacher training and code club initiatives will have impacted 300,000 children and young people all over Canada by end of 2020.