How to support every student's own coding project in middle school computer science

Why this matters

In one 7th grade computer science class, 28 students can pick 28 different programs to write. One student wants practice reminders for her soccer team, and the student next to her wants a pet care game. Each one hits a different error at a different time, but the teacher can only sit with one student at a time. Some projects stall at the first error, and the teacher has to wait for the programs to come in to find out whose did.

Strategies for student-chosen coding projects

Giving students a choice in their work raises their motivation, effort and performance, according to a meta-analysis of 41 studies (Patall, Cooper and Robinson, Psychological Bulletin, 2008).

1. Let each student pick the problem
2. Keep the steps and the rubric the same for everyone
3. Help each student cut the idea down to one they can code

No teacher can debug 30 different programs at the same time. Sparky, Flint's AI tutor, coaches each one in the student's own chat.

The same coding steps, two different programs

Both students are in the same activity and follow the same four steps: problem, plan, code, and test and fix. They write Python in Flint's code editor, press Execute to run it, and send it to Sparky, who reads the code and what it printed. Sparky's first question is the same for the whole class. Everything after it is one student's own chat with Sparky.

Sparky matches the student's coding experienceSparky helps the student cut the idea down to one they can code

R

Ruby

Coding experience: New to coding

Understanding check

What's a problem you, your friends or your family run into, and who has it?

Ruby

My soccer team always forgets when practice is. I want an app that reminds them, and it also has team chat and scores and a map to the field.

Sparky

Problem step: people missing practice is a real problem. That's four apps in one, and you have two class periods. Which part would help your team most?

Ruby

The reminders. It should say hi to each player and tell them the new time.

Sparky

Plan step: what does your program have to remember?

Ruby

Everyone's name on the team, and the new practice time.

Sparky

Code step: you're new to coding, so here's a list and a loop with a fruit stand instead of your team. Press Execute to run it, then use the same idea for your players.

Ruby

I tried it, but it says error. I don't get it.

Sparky

Your list and loop work. The error is on line 4: Python can't join words and a number, and time = 5 is a number. What could you change so the 5 is text?

Ruby

I put quotes around the time, and now it prints a reminder for every player!

Cut four apps down to one, then fixed her first error herself

T

Theo

Coding experience: Has made games in Scratch

Understanding check

What's a problem you, your friends or your family run into, and who has it?

Theo

My little brother wants a dog but we can't have one. I want to make a game where you feed it, walk it, give it baths and unlock new dogs.

Sparky

Problem step: your user is a kid who wants a dog. Which of those jobs matters most for a kid practicing to care for a real dog?

Theo

Feeding. If you forget, the dog gets hungry.

Sparky

Plan step: in Scratch you'd make a variable for this. What does your program have to remember, and what does it print?

Theo

A hunger number that goes down every minute and back up when you feed the dog. It prints the hunger every minute.

Sparky

Code step: a repeat block in Scratch is a for loop in Python. Use one to count the minutes, then press Execute.

Theo

Here's my code. I fed the dog at minute 3.

Sparky

It runs. Look at minute 10 in the output. Does a hunger of -1 match your plan?

Theo

No, it should stop at 0. I'll add an if so hunger can't go below 0, and the dog says it's too hungry to play.

Found a bug in his own output and planned the fix

Ruby is new to coding, so Sparky showed her a list and a loop on a different topic and explained her error in plain words. Theo has made Scratch games, so Sparky connected Python to Scratch blocks and let him spot the bug in his own output. Sparky didn't write either program or fix their code. The code pictures are Flint's code editor, where students run their code and send it to Sparky. The students and chats are examples we wrote for this page.

How to see whose program is stuck

Sparky grades each chat against your rubric. The activity page shows who needs help right now, what the class did well, and what to teach next.

Set up the activity for free

The coding project is in Flint's public library, with Sparky's role, guidelines, greeting and a rubric already written. Open it, select Try this activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and move it to a class. Every student gets their own chat with Sparky, and the activity page fills in as they work. In the activity settings, select Try session myself to test it as a student before you assign it.

Students open the code editor with the Write code button under the message box. The editor starts in Java, so have students pick Python from its language menu the first time. Flint remembers their choice after that.

To use your own project, such as a game with different steps, replace the four steps in Guidelines for Sparky with yours and keep the rest, like this:

For high school, see how to differentiate instruction in computer science. For more computer science activities, see Flint for computer science.