Beyond the Hour of Code

Dr. Sam Patterson•www.beyondthehourofcode.com

Education

Join educator and host Dr. Sam Patterson and his cast of puppets as they discuss all things coding and programming.

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Episodes

Coding for K12: A useful teaching tool for all teachers

Welcome to Beyond the Hour of Code, I am your host Dr. Sam Patterson, makerspace teacher and author of Programming in the Primary Grades, Beyond the Hour of Code. Not everyone is super excited about coding, especially teachers. My love is learning, self-directed, creative, expressive learning. Code and things you can code are just one of the many tools I use in my space. (I have not yet written the beyond material for sewing and puppets, it is coming)- So what I want to chat about today, the con...

Aug 01, 2018•7 min•Ep. 26

Creating Authentic Learning Experiences through #Programming and @Arduino

The most challenging task of trying to teach code in a way that is authentic to students' interests and lives is being able to show code coding is authentic to my own interests. I don’t come to code through a love of tech. I have a poetry degree and never caught the robot bug in my youth. I built model planes and used hot pins to simulate battle damage. My electronics kits are still in mint condition. In this episode of Beyond the Hour of Code I share some of the projects I am currently working ...

Apr 07, 2018•9 min•Ep. 25

Teaching Programming to our PreReaders: How can Coding Teach Students to Read?

In many ways, my whole career changed when I asked the question, “If I can teach coding to pre-readers, can coding help them learn to reading?” This episode of Beyond the hour of code talks through my learning process and highlights some of the most useful pieces. I have included below the framework and template for one of my ScratchJr coding activities. I find that I only have to build a few of these activities and the kids quickly develop the skills to set up the characters and backgrounds on ...

Mar 30, 2018•14 min•Ep. 4

Using Robots in your Elementary Makerspace

The school year is kicking off and I am excited to share a terrific series of podcasts with you about teaching with robots. Below is the beginning of the post, be sure to check out the full article on Beyond The Hour of Code . Lesson Design in Three Dimensions, Learning with Robots The idea of teaching young children by playing with robots seems both amazing and laughable. If it is funny or strange, that is only because it is difficult to imagine learning with a robot. Spoiler alert: it will not...

Mar 23, 2018•11 min•Ep. 7

What can we Teach Through Coding and Programming Activities?

How to Teach Anything Through Code Welcome to episode 2 of Beyond the Hour of Code, a podcast to help teachers do great work. In this episode, we take on a couple of the big ideas we need to use code the best way possible for our elementary students. Code is a Text, and we Teach Through Text If you have been teaching for a while and you don't have a degree in computer programming, no one expects you to stop what you are doing and go become an expert in code, you are an expert in kids. Code is a ...

Mar 23, 2018•8 min•Ep. 2

STEM Education for All Educators: What is Block-Based Coding?

App-Based Blockly Programming Welcome to Beyond the Hour of Code , the podcast to help you use programming to teach core content. I am Sam Patterson and in today's episode, we talk about blockly-based programming in Apps. For a more detailed discussion check out my new book “ Programming in the primary grades: Beyond the Hour of Code ” Why Blockly? Blockly is a tool for building visual programming editors Teachers, once they are familiar with the platform, can spot errors much more quickly than ...

Mar 18, 2018•12 min•Ep. 5

Can Classroom Robots be used to address Social and Emotional Learning?

In this episode of Beyond the Hour of Code, we DARE TO SHARE and we SHARE to CARE! Big slogans made of short words and the power of programming and robots to help your kids learn how to share jobs and resources in the classroom. A side note last week I used this lesson in Kindergarten with the BeeBots and I said to the class, “The hardest thing about working with the BeeBots is NOT programming the robot, that is just pushing buttons. The hardest part of working with Bee Bots is-” and at this poi...

Mar 11, 2018•11 min•Ep. 3

Beyond the Hour of Code: A new podcast celebrating STEM Education

Welcome to Beyond the Hour of Code! Hello and welcome to the first episode of a brand new Podcast called Beyond the Hour of Code. If you are an educator or parent looking for information about how to enhance your classroom lessons and activities through STEM education, coding , and robotics activities , this is the podcast for you. First of all, thank you for clicking on the link and checking out this post. My name is Sam Patterson and together, we will take a journey through the simplistically ...

Feb 01, 2018•9 min•Ep. 1

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