Teacher Jacob Beaulieu and third-grader Kaiden practicing following directions such as right, left, north, south, east and west as part of an offline coding skills activity. (Photo courtesy Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative) 
Third-grader Scarlette practices her directions as she designs code to get through a maze. (Photo courtesy Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative) 
Eighth-grader Tyler uses commands to create a complex shape during a coding activity. (Photo courtesy Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative) 
Third-grader Matthew uses the smart board to build block code in an ‘Angry Birds’ game. (Photo courtesy Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative)
DARTMOUTH — Executive Director Catherine Cooper is pleased to announce that Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative (SMEC) has introduced students in grades K-8 to coding activities through a partnership with Code.org.
This school year, SMEC students have been participating in several hands-on activities to learn about and apply concepts in computer science and coding.
Students in grades K-8 have explored coding through engaging and interactive activities, games and puzzles. These activities help students develop foundational coding skills through problem-solving. The different coding activities are designed to accommodate students in each age group.
Students in grades K-2 follow prompts like guiding a character to a destination while avoiding obstacles or collecting coins, similar to video game challenges. These activities require them to determine the number of steps the character needs to move and decide on the correct directions. As students progress into the later grades, they build on these basic concepts and work on more advanced projects, such as designing their own games, creating digital art, or even composing music through coding.
“I think coding is important because it allows for new opportunities for students to learn and create using computer science techniques,” said teacher Patrick Bell. “These skills that they are learning can be skills they carry for their entire lives and can lead to job opportunities in the future.”
“Coding is important because it engages students in learning, communication and problem-solving skills. It also sparks creativity,” said teacher Melissa Scannell.
These coding activities help build students’ working memories, flexible thinking, planning and organization, a set of skills that are part of executive functioning. The curriculum is focused on developing coding concepts through exploration, discovery and creativity. Students learn to follow directions while gaining many transferrable skills that can be applied to other academic areas, such as mathematics and science.
“I like coding because it’s fun to explore and see how I can improve if it’s wrong. If I make a mistake, it’s fun to fix it,” said Ava, a fourth grader at SMEC.
Students work in cooperative groups throughout the weekly activities, using their creative and problem-solving skills to develop solutions. Students have learned to break down complex problems into pieces, solving each piece one at a time and then putting the solved pieces together to form a complete solution.
“This new program will be a crucial part of our students’ education going forward,” Executive Director Cooper said. “We believe that building these strong technical skills will provide distinct advantages for our students when it comes to enhancing their core executive functioning skills and will, in turn, be beneficial in other academic areas as well.”
About Code.org
Code.org® is an education innovation nonprofit dedicated to the vision that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science and artificial intelligence as part of their core K-12 education. Code.org works to identify and eliminate barriers that prevent the inclusion and full participation of students and educators with disabilities.
About Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative
The Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative is a public education collaborative established in 1975. SMEC is an extension of 10 public school systems, which make up its membership. The present membership includes the Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Fall River, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, Rochester and Old Rochester Regional public school districts. SMEC accepts students for enrollment in its programs from school systems throughout Southeastern Massachusetts. The Collaborative’s programs and services are locally based and locally directed and are designed to supplement the special education resources of its member districts.
SMEC offers a variety of services for students with special needs aged 3-21 as well as adults with developmental disabilities. To learn more about the Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative, visit smecollaborative.org.
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