TINTON FALLS — Ranney School students, including those in pre-K, are using technology across their curriculum with SMART Tables, iPad apps and Bee-Bots as well as coding programs, such as Scratch Jr. and RobotC.
Combining math skills like measurement and basic calculation with strategy, visual-motor integration and teamwork, students are learning the foundations for computer programming — skills they can take with them into the fourth and upper grades, when technology courses at Ranney begin to focus on coding through VEX/VEX IQ robotics and computer electives.
Enrollment in computer science courses in Ranney’s Upper School has grown steadily over the past four years, according to the press release. Web design and app development courses have been added at the school. Ranney students also participate annually in the national Hour of Code.
With three computer science teachers on the faculty and a new hire joining the community in September, the school is formalizing a Computer Science Department that will reinforce the importance of coding and programming skills for strong computer literacy.
“Programming and coding are no longer skills needed only for engineers, but for nearly every profession familiar to us as well as emerging professions,” said Upper School Division Head Katie Gibson. “Having computer science skills will be similar to having the ability to understand and speak a world language, providing advantages in business, marketing, engineering, teaching, art and design, research and medicine, to name a few.”
In Ranney’s AP Computer Science Principles course, students use coding in an interdisciplinary way in their classroom to generate art scenes using JavaScript. Designed by the College Board, the course’s curriculum encourages collaboration and creativity. Students work in groups of four, and each member writes a code for a different piece of the scene. The pieces are then assembled to create the completed work.
“This is an example of what happens in large software companies, where programmers write pieces of code that must work together,” said Chiara Shah, computer science teacher and advisor of Ranney’s robotics program.
