MOUNT VERNON — Andrew Samples knows how to code — although it’s a work in progress.
Sitting around fellow first- and third-graders, Samples can control a tiny robot called an ozobot. The bot can be programmed or coded with commands that determines its direction.
Samples, like other students at Twin Oak Elementary, has focused on coding in the elementary’s STEM lab this academic year.
On Wednesday, students completed a work sheet focused on seasons, filling in words from their vocabulary bank to complete the sentence. Each word would have a line of code filled by a marker.
After the worksheet is complete, Samples and other students, place their ozobot onto the piece of coded paper to watch the robot follow commands based on the colors they inked onto the paper.
Teachers Tiffany Miller and Christy Auker led the class, offering students an opportunity to be collaborative while learning the basics of coding.
“That’s the beauty of the STEM lab,” Twin Oak principal Adam Mowery said. “It encourages communication, critical thinking and persistence.”
In that persistence means you may not solve the problem in the first try, Miller said, and that’s OK.
“It helps (build) problem solving skills and building self confidence,” Mowery said.
Twin Oak Elementary has had the ozobots for two years, Mowery said, funded through federal STEM grants.
Looking toward the future, Miller plans on students being able to code in various ways, like using block coding where one drags jigsaw-like pieces together to form commands for the ozobots.
Coding careers are growing
The Bureau of Labor Statics projects a 25-percent increase in coding jobs between 2021 and 2031, Mowery said at the November Mount Vernon City Schools Board of Education meeting.
Also in the data, STEM careers projected to increase 10.2 percent, while non-STEM careers just 3.6 percent.
“What many of our employers are asking from schools is for students to come to them as communicators, collaborators, critical thinkers and have the ability to persist in difficult tasks.”
Coding is a high-earning career too, with the average salary of a Python coder in Ohio being $105,000, per Talent.com.
“Everybody is starting to see the value in this,” Mowery said.