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CodeMonkey

 


Common Sense Media gives CodeMonkey five stars and says that it is "a great intro to coding that, with solid teacher support, gets students using real programming languages."

With this week's focus on maker activities and makerspaces, I wanted to promote a digital tool that wasn't just "arts and crafts". With the new implementation on the Computer Science standards in New York State, CodeMonkey teaches students how to program and understand algorithms in a fun and interactive way. The many varied activities include both block coding as well as text coding.

For teachers, each game-like platform includes lesson plans and implementation strategies, with scaffolding and supports. CodeMonkey is Ed Law 2D compliant if teachers want to set up students with an account for monitoring and grading purposes, but students can also play in "guest" mode without creating an account or saving progress. 

CodeMonkey is perfect for students in grades K-8, with algorithms getting progressively more challenging, and students are encouraged to work collaboratively on the more difficult levels and games. CodeMonkey is also a great way to introduce students to basic coding if you want to participate in the Hour of Code challenge!

As students progress through the game, they slowly learn new coding or functions and CodeMonkey includes concepts such as: loops, variables, function calls and definitions, objects, arguments, arrays, for loops, Boolean conditions, until loops, if and if-else conditions, and keyboard and mouse events. There are in-game hints and lesson plans include teacher hints and other shared peer solutions. In the highest levels, students learn to create their own games or can set up challenges for peers to solve. 

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