Want to teach your students how to code but don’t know how? CodeSpark Academy is a learn-to-code app for kids ages 5–10 that is free for verified public schools in North America. Used in over a third of U.S. school districts, the platform contains intuitive features that make learning code easy for young students, even those not yet old enough to read. To date, CodeSpark Academy is used in more than 35,000 schools across the world, according to its website.

 

New: “Adventure Game”

According to The Journal, the company plans to release a new set of design features that allow kids to use code to make open-ended role-playing games. Dubbed “Adventure Game,” these creative tools are designed for young kids and don’t require much hand-eye coordination. Inspired by popular games including “The Legend of Zelda” and “Animal Crossing,” Adventure Game also features new options like speech bubbles for characters that makes storytelling central to the game.

 

“Adventure Game furthers our goal of inspiring kids to create with code and express themselves in new ways,” codeSpark co-founder and General Manager Grant Hosford said in a news release shared with The Journal. “This easy-to-use creative mode gives parents, teachers, and kids even more of what they love about codeSpark Academy. Kids were emphatic during play testing about how much they love creating open-ended 3D challenges using our Adventure Game templates and tools.”

 

What Are the Benefits of Teaching With CodeSpark Academy?

According to the company’s website, the benefits of teaching students coding with codeSpark include: 

  • Aligned with standards in Math, Science, and Computer Science.
  • Based on curriculum created at MIT and UCLA.
  • A word-free interface for students too young to read.
  • New content every month.
  • Kids get to apply coding skills to create games.

The company provides a teacher dashboard with resources to help educators manage their classes.

 

CodeSpark Academy also participates in the free annual Hour of Code, and helps educators plan their events with a specialized curriculum.

 

See more coding resources on IEEE TryEngineering here.