Learning Coding Using Games

Learning Coding Using Games

On my block, the grade 9’s would occasionally do enrichment activities where they would code using “Scratch”, a high-level programming software developed for students. I hesitate to call it a language since it doesn’t really have syntax. Rather, the coding elements are put together like lego, so there is rarely any typing involved. Even though it is really basic, you do get some ideas of loops and conditional statements, though those exact words aren’t used. My only reservation was that the activities were extremely “recipe book”. In fact, we used a recipe book, called “Coding Games in Scratch”, which gave them step-by-step instructions for completing the different challenges. As such, even someone with absolutely no idea what they were doing could make these codes. That being said, the Scratch platform had lots of other creative outlets for the students and some students in particular had way more fun that I would have guessed before we began. We were sure to include little extra bits in the challenges that weren’t in the book, in order to make them think.

For learning proper coding, there are other games out there that could be recommended for a more interested/gifted student. One of my favorites is called “Human Resource Machine”. This very funny and challenging game has you control a little office worker by pieces together a series of commands (again, like in Scratch) in order to perform a set of mundane tasks such as sorting a list of numbers. What makes this special is that the whole game is actually a perfect analogy for how computers actually work. There is also a sequel based on parallel programming coming out this year. (http://tomorrowcorporation.com/humanresourcemachine). A free online game I’ve tried that supposedly helps you learn Python is called “Code Combat” (https://codecombat.com) It is not free, but I was able to play a demo. What I like about this version is that it actually causes to type the commands, and so introduces the important of syntax. There is also autocomplete, so it isn’t arduous. I personally didn’t find it terribly fun, but that just may be because I’m already an experienced coder, and it builds so progressively that there’s no challenge or interest in the demo.