#hour ofcode

During the last week of term students at Halcyon London International School took part in an Hour of Code for Computer Science Education Week. I had wanted to teach coding before, but found that there were not enough apps suitable for my students. Firstly, many apps taught students the main principles of coding, but had drag and drop blocks and didn't show them how to actually code. Secondly, apps just weren't right for teenagers, as they were either too babyish or not cool enough. Then we discovered Hakitzu Elite, a game where students use code to get robots to battle their friends.

We were lucky enough to have several members of Kuato Studios come in to work with our students, introducing them to the game and even battling them. Hakitzu Elite allows students to code at different levels, starting at the drag and drop level, all the way to writing code. It also allows students at different levels battle each nother. This was a fantastic feature of the game, as all students could work at a level that challenged them, but students could do this at their own piece, while still playing against their friends!

Students really enjoyed the graphics in the game, especially the different arenas to battle in and being able to customise the look of their CodeWalker! Whereas many coding apps are just there to teach coding, having these features makes the app seem like any other game.

This term I am teaching a whole unit of coding to two grades. The main aim is to get them to learn to code, then to teach coding to their fellow students. One grade will be teaching coding to our grade 6/year 7 students. During this unit we will be looking at several apps, but focussing on Hakitzu Elite, as this will appeal to our students the most. Students will not only teach grade 6/year 7 to code using Hakitzu, but will plan a tournament between both year groups.

All of our students loved taking part in an Hour of Code with Hakitzu Elite and when they found out they would be doing a whole half-term on coding, there were actually cheers! Coding not only gets our students ready for a multitude of jobs, but it teaches them great skills, such as problem solving and logic as well as helps them to become creators, instead of just consumers. As someone who has never coded before, let alone taught coding, Hakitzu Elite was a fantastic tool that gave me the confidence to deliver fun and engaging lessons to my students.

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You can follow Lenny Dutton on Twitter @MissEDutton and find out more about Halcyon International School here: http://halcyonschool.com/

Haktizu Elite is available on iOS and Android!