St Columba Anglican School Primary students participated in the worldwide coding event MoonHack organised by Code Club Australia. The event was an attempt for a Guinness World Record for most number of people coding in a 24 hour period.
The purpose of this MoonHack was to get as many school children participating in a coding activity as possible. Over 230 of our Primary students each completed an hour of coding to go towards the World Record attempt.
Meridith Ebbs, the STEM Consultant at St Columba, ran the event for SCAS students and assisted the children in participating either through coding apps on iPads or using other online tools. Some students completed the suggested project through MoonHack while others completed personal projects, or continued their tutorial program in CS First. Both students and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the day, all very excited to be participating in a Guinness World Record attempt.
Coding is being encouraged as a way to teach computational thinking to all students at St Columba. In 2019, coding will become part of the NSW K-6 Science and Technology Syllabus and a mandatory part of every child’s education. Students at St Columba Anglican School have various ways to learn coding. St Columba’s Director of Primary Curriculum, Lisa Gooding, has implemented a program where every child from Years 3 to 6 work their way through the self-paced CS First program. Jaana Gray, Director of Stage 1, has been working with K-2 teachers to implement coding in their own teaching and learning while Meridith Ebbs facilitates extra curricular code clubs twice a week, and supports teachers to implement STEM and coding in their classrooms. Secondary Students are also encouraged to learn aspects of coding through use of robotics and iSTEM classes in their Technology and Applied Science classes.