Coding is believed to be the 21st century literacy par excellence. Codes make up the totality of our digital world. They are a universal language that every computer speak. Teaching kids coding will not only enable them to better understand the digital world surrounding them but, more importantly, will equip them with skills integral to their overall learning. Coding is all about creativity, imagination, problem solving and strategic thinking.
There is a wide variety of ways to make learning programming and coding a fun an enjoyable task for kids. One of them is through the use of engaging and interactive games. Below is a collection of some of the most popular iPad apps for helping kids learn coding through games. Check them out and share with us if you have other suggestions.
1- Tynker
Tynker is an excellent website for teaching students coding. Students will get to learn the fundamentals of coding and programming through game-like puzzles, tutorials, stories and several interactive activities.Tynker also provides a wide variety of educational resources for teachers and educators. Some of these include: ready-to-use , grade specific lesson plans, STEM project templates that integrate coding across the curriculum, automatic assessment and powerful tracking tools for a better classroom management and many more.
2- Robozzle
‘Robozzle is a social puzzle game which teaches programming. Using only a few simple commands, teach the robot to recurse a tree, follow a linked list, or count in binary. With beautiful graphics, a painstakingly crafted user interface, and unique game play Robozzle for iPhone is a must have for anyone who thinks they are good at puzzles. With hundreds of hours of game play, this is one that you won’t be putting down soon.’
3- Lightbot
‘Lightbot is a programming puzzle game, meaning that its game mechanics require the use of programming logic to solve levels. By simply guiding a robot to light up tiles to solve levels, players cultivate a real understanding of procedures, loops, and conditionals; core concepts to Computer Science. Perfect for guys and girls alike: you can play as Boybot or Girlbot!’
4- Kodable
‘Kodable – Programming Curriculum for Elementary This award winning game and accompanying curriculum, is designed to teach the basics of computer coding to kids 5 and up. ’
5- Cargo-Bot
Over one million people have enjoyed Cargo-Bot! The puzzle game that challenges your brain and helps you learn programming concepts.It’s a puzzle game where you teach a robot how to move crates.’
6+ Hour of Code http://thefoos.com/hour-of-code/
