Learning to Code is Fun & Easy with Code Rocket
As a member of the Timberdoodle Blog Team, I was given this product for free in exchange for my honest review.
Let’s Start Coding’s Code Rocket is a circuit board project to introduce students to C++ programming in a fun and engaging way. It is included in the Timberdoodle 5th grade curriculum or can be purchased as a stand alone product. Our family has some basic coding experience from using Scratch and Code.org. This project took our computer programming knowledge to the next level as we learned to write real code instead of using visual blocks.
What is included
The product arrived quickly from the company and I was surprised how small the box was. It is a compact activity and won’t take up much space on your shelves. The kit includes the circuit board rocket, a stand, expandable USB cord and a set of terminology cards.
We set up the Rocket to be used on both a Chromebook and a Windows laptop. The set up was super easy and the website directions were easy to follow. We made a shortcut on the desktop of our Windows laptop. The Chromebook app works as a Chrome extension. The Code Rocket communicates with your computer via a standard USB cord, so depending on the age of your computer you may need an adapter, like I did on my 1 year old Chromebook, which only has USB-C inputs. Ironically, in this case older computers will probably be fine. The tutorials are all web based so an internet connection is required also.
How we used our Code Rocket
Our family does a lot of our learning together during what we call Morning time including our history, science and art. Our science unit was getting a little stale so we took a break and swapped in Code Rocket instead for our family Science for a few weeks to try it out. I set up the desktop shortcuts the night before and played a little bit so I knew what to expect when we started as a family.
We gathered around the laptop and rocket and dove in together. It was a quick success with the 12 year old exclaiming, “This is way more fun than Scratch!” and asking to work ahead a few lessons after her other school work was done. That is the kind of thing that this homeschool mom calls a win!
Each Lesson begins with looking at a piece of code, followed by a video explaining it and additional reading to explain the coding concepts that were introduced, followed by a self grading quiz, a challenge and a debugging project. Some of the lessons we did completely as a family, working together and taking turns. A few lessons in, we were challenged to program lights and sounds in morse code so each child took a turn to write something.
There are 21 lessons or assignments to the course. I had originally planned to do one lesson 3 days a week for our science. Some of the early lessons we did two lessons in one day and the Morse Code series of lessons took longer because each student worked separately. The lessons took no more than 30 minutes and were often much shorter.
Bonus Support from Let’s Start Coding
During the setup process one of the options was to sign up for emails from Code Rocket’s parent company Let’s Start Coding with resources and tips to get started with our Rocket. These tips have been a great asset as the parent/teacher. I have learned how to guide their learning and what is coming next as we work through it. They also offer other suggestions like trying to jump ahead a few lessons to see what the students can understand in a more challenging piece of code.
Each email also offers an easy way to reach the support team if we have questions or something isn’t working. While we are in the lessons there is also a chat box to easily ask questions if we need support. I appreciate this accessibility to support when we are working on the lessons.
Code Rocket and Outside the Box Kids
Outside the Box Kids can have a variety of learning needs and challenges, making finding curriculum hard sometimes. Code Rocket can be a good fit for Outside the Box kids because it is structured and hands on. We have other open ended Programming toys but the lack of guidance on the programming makes it hard to get started and hold attention. Code Rocket gives knowledge in bite size chunks and also allows the freedom for students to explore the code on their own from the very beginning.
Because it has both a hands-on and physical component to the lessons, the Code Rocket is great because it allows the child to really see the results of the code they are creating when it is sent via the USB cord to the rocket each time they update it. The lessons worked well for a range of ages and for Outside the Box kids that can be a big advantage. My students are learning at 4th-8th grade and, as I mentioned above, this is included in the 5th grade curriculum kit from Timberdoodle.
Final Thoughts
While I have to admit when I first offered the Code Rocket opportunity to my students they didn’t show much excitement, once they had it in their hands and got started they loved it. I think it had to do with having a tangible outcome to learning to code. Their previous coding experience was all on the screen, but this time they could hold the item processing the code to in their hands.
My husband is in the Technology field and has been excited to watch the kids learn more advanced coding. He has shared how he has to write code in his job regularly, and he is not even a programmer. He even sat down and did a lesson with them.
After about half of the lessons my students were already going rogue on the lesson challenges and changing them in other ways based on what they had learned. My students enjoy Minecraft and other video games, one even thinks he wants to be a game designer. Learning C++ coding with Code Rocket is one step towards exploring that career and Let’s Start Coding has made it fun and exciting.