NII Explore introduces coding lessons to support parents, elementary school teachers

At last week’s NII Explore Code-a-thon, local elementary students took part in both on-line and off-line activities to learn new coding concepts.

Whether that’s throwing down scissors to beat paper as they learn about conditional statements or discovering the ins and outs of artificial intelligence, Coding in the Classroom lessons — which reached 9,100 local students over the 2022-23 school year — deliver accessible, engaging computer science education.

But the learning doesn’t end when the NII Explore team has packed up the last coding robot.

NII Explore is proud to announce that parents and teachers can access all of NII Explore’s coding lesson plans for Grades 2-8 students — completely free, no sign-ups required. The 450-page binder has been provided to local school boards in physical copies, but can be accessed by anyone at nii.ca/coding-in-the-classroom.

“We’ve been able to scale our programs to maximize the impact on our local students, thanks to the trust and support of our local school board administrators and teachers, who welcomed us into their classrooms over the past three years,” said Phillip Craig, director of NII Explore.

“We are pleased to collaborate with NII Explore on this initiative to support our educators and families in building our students’ knowledge and skills in the area of coding,” said Keith Lefebvre, superintendent of education for the Bluewater District School Board.

“By enabling easy access to their coding lesson plans, our education partners at NII Explore are modelling our board’s multi-year strategic plan priority of quality instruction by providing relevant learning experiences that foster critical and forward thinking, innovation, creativity and problem-solving.”

“This coding curriculum would not have been possible without the selfless commitment to education in our region from the Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII)’s founding members Bruce Power, AtkinsRéalis, BWXT Canada, Cameco, E.S. Fox and Kinectrics,” said Bruce Wallace, chairman of the NII Explore board of directors.

Parents and educators can browse and download the lessons by visiting nii.ca/coding-in-the-classroom and join the conversation by tagging @NIIExplore in their Instagram posts, showcasing their young coders in action!