Coding is a concept as a whole that is relatively new to me, and one that I am still trying to wrap my brain around. I have never been the most technologically advanced person so I never truly realized the thought that needed to go into making a computer make one move. Within our class I learned about the website The Hour of Code where I got a bit more comfortable with coding through one of the game options they provided. The game I chose to experiment with was called “Pirate Plunder”. Essentially, you had to assist the pirate in stealing the gold treasure chest. I only had the time and patience to complete level 9 but the game did go to level 15 before it was complete.

Level 1 started off fairly simple. There was only 2 different functions to choose from which included “walk” and “take treasure”. In order to pass the level, you had to tell the pirate specifically how to move or he would fall off the ledge and into the water. I found that counting the squares on the screen was the most helpful in determining how many times I had to tell the pirate to walk in order to reach the treasure chest. In this case, I took screenshots of the functions only so the game part is unfortunately not visible. Even at the beginning, it took me a few tries to eventually figure out how to get the pirate to where he wanted to be.

 

Once reaching level 4, it became increasingly more difficult. The number of functions increased as well as the number of moves you needed to make in order to reach your final destination. This is also where I found that perspective came into play. When telling the pirate to turn left or right, I had to be increasingly thoughtful about which one I chose. I found myself picking up my laptop and turning it in order to make sure that I was prompting him to go in the proper direction. This level also included collecting a key to unlock a blockade that stood in your way between the start and the treasure, as well as stopping to fight another pirate along the way. Overall, much trial and error here in determining how to explicitly tell the pirate where to go

 

The last level that I played was level 9 pictured here. This is where the game incorporates repeats into the functions. It took a minute to figure out how they all fit together but eventually, I did. On this level, the pirate had to take 3 steps then turn right, 3 steps then turn right, and three steps and turn right again, before he ended up in front of the treasure. Then step 7 tells the pirate to take the treasure.

Overall, I had a fun time trying out coding for the first time. I think the games are very strategy-based which is a good option for children instead of playing games where they don’t get anything out of it. However, I’m not sure it interests me enough for it to be a skill regularly. Though, the entire time I was playing this game I was thinking of ways that it could be incorporated curricularly. This could be easily integrated into science if the curriculum allowed, used as computer science possibly for PAA in middle years but I also thought it would be a great way to support a procedural writing unit instead of other ways I’ve seen such as the peanut butter and jelly sandwich project (I’ve included a video of this below). I think as a whole, coding is important to understand. The technology that we have in our homes, and in our pockets daily doesn’t just do what you tell it to by clicking on an app just because. I’ll leave you with this… it is amazing to think about all the items we use daily that use code in order to function.