A kid’s code to success

As technology has continued to evolve, computational thinking has established itself as the new literacy for the 21st century. It is an essential resource for any young learner, as it improves digital literacy, aids integration into society, and boasts many important transferrable skills. But do we know what it is and how to harness its true benefits?

It's key for us to recognise how practising these fundamental skills early will provide an important tool to help young learners develop problem-solving strategies that future-proofs and assists them in many aspects of everyday life.

Grant Smith, VP of Education at Code Ninjas, the kids coding experts, offers his beginner’s guide to a vital skill that benefits our students now and in the future.

Computational thinking in the everyday

Although the term may sound like a complicated concept that can only be understood by computer scientists, at its core, it’s simply about learning to solve problems, with or without a computer. Before we use computers to solve a problem, we must first understand the problem and how it can be resolved. This process of breaking down a complex problem into simple steps that a computer, or human, can understand is the basis of computational thinking. Outside of computer science, computational thinking can be found in everything we do, from planning a day out with friends to following the rules of a board game.

Let’s take running a bath as an example. What may seem like a straightforward process actually has many small intricacies when you break the task down. First, you’ll need a bath with running water. Secondly, you’ll need some bubble bath. Lastly, you’ll need a towel to dry yourself.

But each of these steps also has even smaller individual procedures. When running the tap, you’ll want to calculate the water temperature, so it isn’t too hot or too cold. When pouring your bubble bath, you’ll want to dispense the right amount for the desired number of bubbles. You’ll also have to determine how much water to run into your bath, so it doesn’t overflow.

As you can see, such a simple task actually involves many much smaller steps and when we miss out one of these steps, the end result could end up looking very different.

The four cornerstones

The computational thinking process can be broken down into these four key steps:

1. Decomposition breaks down a complex problem into smaller and simpler problems
2. Pattern recognition looks for similarities among and within problems
3. Abstraction identifies important information while ignoring irrelevant details
4. Algorithms, lastly, are simply the steps we design and take to solve the problems at hand

So, breaking down the running a bath task into smaller steps, you may then recognise some similar steps to a task like washing your hands. You may choose to keep the water temperature information but ignore that you’ll need the bubble bath to create bubbles. Then you create the algorithm so you can repeat the task in the same order each time to create your perfect bath time.

Computational thinking in computer science

A computer-based example of exercising the four cornerstones of computational thinking is one that kids at Code Ninjas encounter every day: building their own computer game.

To create a game, they have to decompose the game idea into smaller, more manageable parts like the start screen, game mechanics, and user interaction. They’ll use pattern recognition to think of how they want the game to be played and develop the ‘rules’ for the player. They’ll then use abstraction to create multiple levels by reusing the important details that will become a common theme like ‘lava will always hurt the player’. They will use their knowledge of algorithms to create algorithms that can be repeated and generalised. For example, an algorithm that makes enemy movement look like they are thinking for themselves.

The importance of computational thinking

Computational thinking will be core to our students’ futures, whether they decide to pursue a career in computer science or not. While there are obvious benefits for future employment, it’s the development of critical thinking and emotional competencies that set up students for long-term success. When children learn computational thinking skills, it helps them to develop skills important for not only STEM subjects, but also across a wide range of different subjects and career opportunities.

As well as improving students’ digital literacy and developing their 21st-century skills for the future, computational thinking can help their integration into society thanks to the many transferrable skills it boasts. Although its name implies a complex conceptual approach to learning, computational thinking is a powerful problem-solving tool that equips students to solve problems in our modern world.

Teaching and reinforcing computational thinking skills in students at an early age will promote technological skills that will prepare them for potential careers in computer science and coding, but also help them better manage problems and challenges they will face in the future in many different environments.

Incorporating computational thinking in the classroom

There are many ways that teachers can help develop and exercise the four cornerstones of computational thinking with their students in the classroom.

Dance routine

Encourage your students to create a game where each student has to create a dance move, that needs to be added to a sequence throughout the class. When they break down the moves within the sequence, they will be decomposing the actions in order to understand them.

House patterns

Set your students the task of designing their own house – by doing so they will explore and identify the similarities between features of other houses and show their understanding of certain patterns.

Bake a cake

In this activity, follow an ingredient list and recipe to bake a cake, cookies, pizza, or anything you might fancy! If you can’t bake something, consider decorating cookies. This exercises abstraction, whilst also making a fun lunch treat for your students!

Lyric sequencing

For this task, write down the lyrics to your students’ favourite songs, splice them and muddle them up. If your students can identify the correct sequence of the song, it will showcase that they know that the order of events – the algorithm – is important.

Computational thinking is beneficial for all, not just computer scientists or those going into STEM-related fields. If we incorporate computational thinking in easy and simple ways for young learners, we can ensure they are equipped with the skills they need for solving life’s everyday problems.

There are many different ways to teach computational thinking, but possibly the best way to practise is by learning how to code. If you know a child that is interested in the world of coding, visit https://www.codeninjas.com/locations-list/gb to find the location nearest to you.