In my own words · Newport News, VA

Why I love coding

Two small AstroPi Raspberry Pi computers with camera modules floating in the Columbus laboratory of the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Coding" page — read by families in Newport News, VA. — Two small AstroPi Raspberry Pi computers with camera modules floating in the Columbus laboratory of the space station. NASA · Public domain

I type words and something happens.
The error message is the computer telling me where to look.
I made a thing that works. It did not exist before.

You can love coding in Newport News.

What it really is

Coding is writing instructions carefully enough that a machine can follow them.

Three things to try today

Write out how to tie a shoe, step by step.
Have someone follow it with no help.
Fix the step that failed.

Students from Montgomery College crouch beside their Swarmie robots, watching the code they wrote run during the Swarmathon competition. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Coding" page — read by families in Newport News, VA. — Students from Montgomery College crouch beside their Swarmie robots, watching the code they wrote run during the Swarmathon competition. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Nobody has to talk a child into liking coding. They have to not talk them out of it. Newport News is one of the cities the Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA-NC metro area is officially named after.

Errors are information, not failure. A child who reads error messages is already debugging.

If the kid who loves this is a girl

Read what one popular teacher said to one little girl who took out the classroom trash without being asked — and what that girl did with the rest of her life.

Girls are great at math — Newport News, VA →