It’s a few hours into the school day and bus after bus pulls up as hundreds of students start to off load. Elementary and middle school students pour inside the district's multipurpose center. Parents, siblings, and community members stand by, excited to cheer on their students while coaches and staff anxiously await the day's events.
Huddled together, some in coordinating jerseys–they’ve excitedly been preparing for weeks and even years.
After receiving directions, participants peel off to make final preparations for their team and individual events.
Long before the traditional stereotypes have had a chance to form, these young learners have come to compete. Defying the norms, they face a different type of arena. This competition today is called Klein Codes – a yearly coding event where students from Klein Independent School District (ISD) in Harris County, Texas gather together and compete in coding challenges. For us, it’s unlike any competition we’ve seen anywhere else in the country.
Klein Codes is an annual, two-day coding celebration organized by Klein (ISD). Klein ISD has 53,000 students districtwide and is making an impact with their after school coding clubs. Klein ISD’s unique and thriving coding club model is in place at all 33 of their elementary schools, and 10 of their intermediate schools.
The clubs serve about 1,500 students (referred to as “Coders”) who come together after school to learn how to code using Skill Struck, and other coding platforms, facilitated by coaches.
“Klein ISD’s Advanced Academics department provides stipends for 2 coding Coaches/clubs per elementary school and intermediate campuses. The demand is so high that we have to add a 3rd Coach/club on some campuses,” said Jessica Jasper, the Program Coordinator - Advanced Academic Services, College and Career Pathways for Klein ISD.
As the end of the school year approaches, the Coders are anxious to celebrate and show off their coding skills they learned throughout the year. They do that by competing against the other clubs in their school district at Klein Codes. This year the Klein Codes theme was “Choose Your Own Adventure.”
“Our annual coding expo celebrates these coders, similar to fine arts showcases and sports banquets, but with our own, unique techy twist. Students have the opportunity to compete in multiple events and showcase their coding superpowers,” Jasper said.
The Coders and Coaches are all bused to Klein's Multipurpose Center on the day of the event. Then the fun begins as the coders compete in multiple challenges. These challenges include:
Kathleen Plott, Klein ISD’s Advanced Academic Services Director said, “This opportunity for EVERY student in grades 3-8 is phenomenal. The exceptional level of creative coding products and brilliant attention to detail, then appraised by experts in the field are unprecedented.”
Over the past five years Klein Codes has been growing to increase opportunities for all their students. Jasper shared, “When I first took over #KleinCodes, the program had been around for about two years and had focused heavily on Scratch with just one entry point which left no room for students who had varying skill levels. Over the past five years, #KleinCodes has grown to include opportunities for multiple programming languages for students in 3rd-8th grade. Our coding clubs now serve as a pathway into advanced computer science and CTE courses in high school.”
Klein ISD is innovative when it comes to providing opportunities for all students to thrive today as well as in the future. Their mission statement for High-Quality Teaching states that they “Thoughtfully tailor learning for each student’s strengths, needs, and passions by Leveraging technology to innovate, connect, share, and enhance collaboration.”
Jasper explained, “After years of looking for a coding platform that could support students who have varied interests and skill levels, I selected Skill Struck because of the flexibility it provided our students and coaches. I loved the clean and logical user interface. Plus, Skill Struck has top notch customer support and has been there with us every step of our implementation year!”
Klein ISD invited Skill Struck team members to support and judge the Klien Codes event.
“Klein codes was an exhilarating experience. To see an entire community come together and support so many kids is really something else. Kids, parents, and teachers were on pins and needles as they prepared, presented, and competed. It truly was like a massive sporting event and came with all the same emotions.” said Brian Grow, CRO at Skill Struck.
After five years, Klein Codes continues to grow and inspire kids and communities to jump into coding. We believe other districts can implement a similar model, helping communities engage in a skill set that will prepare students for the future.
Here are three things to consider when building a coding club for your district:
To learn more about how to implement a coding club into your district, reach out to us at skillstruck.com/get-demo.