In Poland, a unique educational project Coding Masters was created, which aims to disseminate learning programming at Polish schools. It is introduced at the primary education level..It confirms that teaching is always worthwhile and necessary, because it is not only a very useful skill on the labor market, but also generally the ability to code forces to think.
As part of the classes, children learn programming in the intuitive language of Scratch.
It is one of the most widespread and used applications for teaching coding for children. It is a simple application (and even a programming language) for visual coding, in other words, in which the algorithm is composed of colored blocks. You can create simple games and animations with it. Scratch language allows you to write applications that allow you to control Lego Mindstorms robots and devices from Arduino, which means that in this language you can not only write a computer program, but also program a robot. Thanks to such activities, young adepts of programming art can independently revive works made of blocks, construct moving vehicles, or program invented characters.
Children also use other applications. PixBlocks application allows teaching the basics of programming for people of all ages. It allows both self-study and teaching in schools under the guidance of a teacher (in accordance with the core curriculum and MEN guidelines). Thanks to it, we can learn both visual programming (which is very useful especially in the first stages of learning, in order to understand what programming is all about), and how to program text in simple Python.
Coding lessons influence the interest in IT, robotics and programming. Issues related to this subject have become familiar for children and more understandable. Students develop the desired skills: logical thinking, planning, sorting, presenting their own thoughts.
The implementation of the program has mobilized teachers to cooperate, to learn and change their working methods. Computer classes have become more attractive to students.
We are aware that apart from the mother tongue and several foreign languages, the programming language is also becoming increasingly important in our lives. Coding is used not only by IT specialists but also by students, high school students, junior high school students and even children in primary school. By 2020, 900,000 people in IT positions may be missing in Europe. The dissemination of programming skills and knowledge of basic codes, soon during job interviews, may become as required as the knowledge of English. Hence our conviction about the necessity of coding activities.