CODE GREEN

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September 24, 2024

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here. 

Coding class continues to make strides for eighth graders, including grant money assistance, at Notre Dame Prep.

Computer-based learning has come a long way since it began in the 1980s. Gone are the Apple 2Es (or Commodore 64s), the 5-1/2" floppy disks, the black screens with bright green print, and BASIC.

Now computers are everywhere, and computer programs help rank amateurs — and young students — put out professional-quality materials and products — not to mention web-based products on the internet.

Each year, the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) offers grants for technology integration projects in Michigan PK-16 classes. 

According to Melissa York, Notre Dame Prep's technology integration specialist and a teacher in the middle school, a grant recently received from MACUL will help introduce NDP students to computer coding in a more useful and understandable way.

"Currently in my eighth-grade coding class, which is a new elective this school year, students just finished their unit on learning how to code HTML language," she said. "The students learned about coding headings, body paragraphs, and ordered and unordered lists. Also, students finished the unit by designing and creating a mini webpage using the HTML language learned."

York said that grants like these are awarded to schools interested in implementing effective instructional use of technology in the classroom. 

"With the grant funds, I will soon purchase Micro:Bits, a pocket-sized computer designed by the BBC in the U.K. to inspire creative thinking in young students," she said. "It can be programmed in many different ways and has multiple uses. I also will be getting an Adafruit CRICKIT for Circuit Express for the Micro:bit." 

Currently, York's coding class has 19 students but by the end of the school year, all eighth graders will take the class. And every nine weeks the course rotates with a different group of students.

 

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndprep.org.