Students at several schools across the region are getting an introduction to coding and why it's becoming an increasingly valuable skill.
A group of students at Grade 5 and 6 students at St. Agnes Catholic Elementary School in Chatham were the third in a series of groups in Chatham-Kent to take part in the Canada Learning Code program this past week. The free workshop, funded by the Government of Canada, travels across the country to teach children the basics of coding and its value in everyday life. It stopped at St. Matthew Catholic Elementary School in Sarnia, Holy Family in Wallaceburg, St. Ursula in Chatham, and Gregory A. Hogan in Sarnia.
Joelle Curcio, code mobile communications lead, said it's important for kids to learn how to code for a variety of reasons.
"Coding is a really important skill. Code is in the world all around us, computers are everywhere and technology is everywhere," said Curcio. "There's going to be a lot of jobs coming up that use coding in the future and even that exist right now. More than just that, coding is a really important skill. Being able to think logically and reason is important for everyday life."
The students were taught how to build a computer game from scratch by using code. Curcio said the workshop generates a great response from teachers and students.
"We have a great response from kids who actually enter our workshops thinking they're not going to like coding and then they realize that coding is actually really creative and really artistic as well as logical and they have a lot of fun," said Curcio.
