Debugging CS Ed — Building North Star Academy’s Program with CodeHS
Three years ago, North Star Academy began rolling out computer science with CodeHS across four of their middle school campuses. North Star Academy, based in Newark, New Jersey, is part of the larger Uncommon Schools charter network. Their approach focuses on data driven instruction, strong student and staff culture, and thoughtful planning and development.
Brian Smith is one of North Star’s veteran teachers and was an early adopter of CodeHS. With over eighteen years of teaching experience, Brian has spent the last ten years teaching science at Downtown Middle School. He has written science curriculum, run professional development, and served as the Science Department Head. Brian loves everything about science, yet admits, “I’m happiest when teaching kids.”
As North Star embarked on bringing computer science education to their campuses, they brought teachers together to present the opportunity. At the network meeting, Brian quickly saw the relevance of coding and computer science. He explains that it’s important “not just in the Instagram way, but in the language of our time way.” The significance of providing his students with critical 21st century skills was a powerful motivator, and Brian embraced the prospect of teaching computer science education.
But what would a network rollout look like? These teachers had no previous computer science experience and were busy teaching other subjects.
The North Star leadership team knew this, and that’s why they chose the comprehensive CodeHS platform, assuring teachers that CodeHS was a one stop shop for curriculum, progress monitoring, and grading. Even without a background in computer science, teachers could easily navigate the web-based instruction, teacher tools and resources, and professional development. The best part of course was that students would love it too.
Brian embraced teaching with CodeHS and appreciated how seamless the process was, “my kids love it…I love it… It’s well designed, interactive, and lets you learn at your own pace. Help is everywhere and the badges are great rewards. It has a nice progression in terms of skill, rigor, complexity, and function.” Brian soon went above and beyond what even North Star could have expected. He engaged with CodeHS staff and provided suggestions and feedback for creative additions and updates. He even went beyond his own classroom, volunteering many long Saturdays to coach the robotics team to a star showing at their FIRST Lego League competition.
Brian explains, “I’ve been using this platform for 3 years and each year is better, the response to feedback from teachers like me is tremendous… The customization of modules to meet my needs in terms of how often I teach has been massive for me and grading and tracking progress relative to that frequency.”
Brian also recalls when Jeremy, co-founder and CEO of CodeHS, visited his campus and left a lasting impact, “In 3 minutes he explained the science in computer science… and I started to teach through that perspective.”
Brian applies that by presenting debugging in a completely different light that he initially started with. Rather than focusing the majority of time writing perfect code, Brian helps his students understand that debugging is half the process. When students work with the mindset that debugging is a natural part of the process, they can work more independently and strategically. Instead of deleting whole sections of code, Brian encourages his students to make small changes at a time — to find and isolate one variable at a time — just like in the scientific method.
Brian also uses notebooks to make sure students write out their thinking in pseudocode. Brian explains that when his students try to blame the computer for their code not working, he will remind them write out their logic. “I don’t want to have a conversation with a blank piece of paper, so I make them write it out.”
Brian is also very excited about the debugging components on CodeHS — students can pause the code editor and isolate where their logic breaks down or where a typo may have snuck by. He sees that debugging encourages his students to be more critical and scan for errors. Brian also says that the debugging process is really encouraging for students, “when you’re successful and Karel does what he or she is supposed to do, there’s that little positive feedback of feeling successful and learning something new.” Brian describes the little celebrations around the room, “you can see it, even a small smile or a silent fist bump, they get really excited about it.”
Brian describes a classroom where kids of all backgrounds can thrive, “The kids do really well with it — some have learning disabilities and they don’t necessarily know that when they’re using CodeHS. It’s new for everyone, it’s a clean slate for everyone, and it’s great to see those kids doing well with it.” Brian would recommend CodeHS for anyone. He adds, “it really reinforces what they’ve learned in other subjects like algebra or science.”
Brian can’t wait to start teaching CodeHS more frequently throughout the week. He knows it’s important to spend dedicated time on CodeHS to allow students to build on their skills. North Star is currently looking at dedicating more weekly class time to coding with CodeHS and at expanding to new campuses in the future.
