Learning How to Build Websites Opens Up New Opportunities for Kids and Teens.
One of the classes that we offer in our after-school coding program is Web Development. In the class, participants learn text-based coding languages, code their own websites, and learn key developer concepts like wireframing and how to use a text-editor.
Participants build fun projects like the About Me Project (a personal bio page about the coder)or a Choose Your Own Adventure Game (CYOA). Our advanced participants build web applications to solve problems that they care about such as ED.iana, a web app aimed at helping middle schoolers find local colleges that foster their unique interests and goals. Participants typically work on larger-scale projects in our Next Level Coding course.
Whether your learner is just beginning their coding journey or looking to grow their current skills, web development/design is a great path to explore!
Here are a few reasons why our team loves teaching web development:
1) There’s a tangible reward, right away.
Web development and design are great for learning how to code because it takes only a few lines of code to get text or an image to appear on the screen.
In all of our classes, students start coding on the first day. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve met students who didn’t think that they were capable of learning how to code. All of that changes when their coding instructor teaches them how to do something simple using code like write their name on the screen or how to code a picture of their favorite animal to appear. These type of coding actions only take a couple of minutes but the impact tends to last much longer. For instance, once a student sees their name on the screen and then realizes that they can code, the question only becomes “what else can I do?” A participant’s first website offers a tangible reward, as well as encouragement and validation for learning new skills (both in and outside of coding).
2) Participants learn coding languages used in the real world.
In our after-school web development programs, our instructors introduce participants to three coding languages: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These are text-based coding and programming languages used daily by professional web developers and web designers. In turn, learning this new skill gives our students relevant knowledge that they can apply to the real world.
3) Every company needs someone who knows how to code.
In the 21st century, every company is a tech company in that having an online presence can benefit any business. Today, most companies rely on a digital presence. Over the years, our team’s helped many students to use the web development skills that they learned in our program to earn their first paid-tech internships. Some of the internships have been custom building sites that best fit a local company while others have been updating a CMS that the client is already using such as Squarespace and Wix. Our company was pleasantly surprised to learn that although these CMS’s exist, having a solid understanding of technology is still needed to customize the CMS templates to still make the site what you [the client] wants it to be.
Basically, it has it all.
No matter how a student plans to apply their latest coding knowledge, web development and design offer its participants many new opportunities. This pathway to learning or growing coding skills has a low barrier to entry as well as room for growth. For many of our students, it also gives them a chance to see how much they’re capable of.
In our program, we currently have students as young as age 8 learning web development 🎉🎉🎉. We’re offering Beginner-Advanced level courses. To learn more, visit southbendcodeschool.com
Thanks for reading!
Sign up to code with us in our after-school program for Ages 7–18 by visiting southbendcodeschool.com.
