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Newspaper inEducation

Coding has becomemore than a child’splay with studentsacross the US, Indiaand China taking it

quite seriously as themost lucrative career

option ahead. NIEcoders are here to

troubleshoot

Geeks decode

MASTER LOGICAL THINKING

LIKE TO INNOVATE?CODING IS FOR YOU

LOVE FOR GAMING HELPS

A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITIES

To become a coder, one needs to master the skill of log-ical thinking. Coding involves a step-by-step processof breaking down complex problems into simplerones. Once you master this, you can move on to work-

ing on complex codes. You will be able to learn from mistakesbecause you will make a lot of them.

KEN HARRIS, class XII, Metro Matriculation Hr. Sec, Coimbatore

I’ve been a gamer for a while. And ever since I firstbooted up a video game on that ancient Toshiba lap-top I used to own, I was enamoured with the con-cept of making one of my own. I was drawn to cod-

ing — and then I realised how much was possible.

SIDDHARTH ARUN, class IX, Silver Oaks Int’l, Bengaluru

Coding today as a career hasbecome popular, especiallyamongst those who love to in-novate. Coding,

offeres every individuala platform to invent anew application basedon one’s imaginationand therefore be an in-ventor. The experienceis rejuvenating becauseapart from the syntax,there is nothing tolearn by rote.Every appli-cation is in-novated.ABHIDEEPSHIKHAR,IX, CMSGomti Nagar2, Lucknow

Everyone is highly influenced by movies these days abouthackers and programmers. It sparks an adrenaline rushamong millennials. This led me to coding. Also, becauseIT-related occupations constitute over

60% of projected new job positions in STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).ISHAAN AMRIT MEHTA, class XII, Govt Model Sr SecSchool, Chandigarh

JUST SURF AND CODE AWAY!

Istarted coding when I was 11. While surfingon Google, I came across a catchy advertise-ment regarding a programming language,named Python. I started exploring it as a fun

activity. Gradually, I learnt C++ Programming Lan-guage along with a bit of HTML.

HITARTH MEHRA, class XI, DPS East,

Bengaluru

BEGIN WITH ROBOTICS

When I was about seven or eight,I wanted to become a roboticist.I’d signed up for a lot of roboticsclasses and had numerous kits

at home as well, including my prized LegoMindstorms EV3. The EV3 is what gotme started into coding. I built quitea few robots with it.MIHIR TALATI, class IX, Silver Oaks International School, Bengaluru

LEARNING POINT: Some knowledge inbasic programming is a must and the ITfield requires us to learn various program-ming languages. We got a chance to work

with Raspberry Pi and buildsimple circuits with it. Be apart of coding clubs.

LEARNING POINT: Open up a notepad, find a pro-gramming language, and write ‘Hello World’. Fromhere, your coding journey begins. Get pet proj-ects, make your own functions, downloadlibraries and create multi-file programs. Enjoy it.

LEARNING POINT: Youtube, offlineclasses and books will help you becomea coder. Code whenever you're free.Listening to music while coding alsohelps you relax.

LEARNING POINTS: Goodwriting and basic mathe-matical skills are essentialfor the role of a coder.The programmer alsoneeds an inquisitive mind,resourcefulness, knowl-edge of the problem andability to fix it.

LEARNING POINT: Computer programming has helped me in devel-oping productivity logic and has mademy general thinking and problemsolving skills sharper. It is an interest-ing way to make use of time and at

the same time learning anew language.

LEARNING POINT: Anyone can become a pro-grammer. The easiest place to start is the

internet, there are many tutorials on com-puter programming. All it takes is a pos-

itive attitude and good research.

BE PREPARED TO FALTER

ONE LANGUAGE AT A TIME

WHEN PROBLEM ARISES, A FIX-IT ATTITUDE

A VERY LUCRATIVE JOB

DO GOOD RESEARCH ONLINE

LEARNING POINT:Becoming a coder is assimple as finding aproblem and fixing it.The only thing that setsprofessional codersapart from you is effi-ciency and speed. Picka language, code away!

YOU CAN START YOUNG

If you are passionateabout coding, then youcan start early. I startedcoding at the age of eight.

The thing that interested meabout coding is playing onlinegames. My father said, “if youlike games, then you shouldmake games instead of justplaying them...” So I startedcoding and am still learning it.

I started coding usingScratch 2.0 Offline Editor.There you will have coding op-tions and each aspect has a dif-ferent script. In games, codingisn't used for designing the en-tire game, but for facilitating

functions.

OM PATNAIK,

grade V,

Shiv Nadar,

Noida

LEARNING POINT:The qualities youneed to be a coderare intelligence,patience, attentive-ness and resilliencebecause you can’tafford to make asingle mistake. Ihave coded a gamevia Scratch 2.0that took 30mins to one-and-a-halfhours.

My coding experi-ence has been amixed one. I firstventured into cod-

ing a couple years ago, and wasunaware of the immense pa-tience and practice it requires.This prevented me from beingable to enjoy it. It took me alot of failed attempts, buggy

code and hours of screen timeto gather the technical prowess.

SOHAM LOHAKAREY, class IX, Silver

Oaks International School, Bengaluru

The more you code, the more you learn. Butdo not learn a lot of languages at one go.This will make you get confused betweentheir syntaxes. Choose a simple pro-

gramming language to start and try to learnas much as possible. Knowledge of highschool maths is required for some com-petitive coding.

NISHCHAY BHUTORIA, IX C, DPS, Secunderabad

Acoder needs the ability tolearn concepts and applythem in various otherways. He or she also has to

have great communication skills, sothat the display screen is user friend-ly and adapts to the right audience.A coder needs focus and patience, aseven the smallest and the silliest bugor syntax error might stop an entireprogram from compiling.HARSH KUMAR AGARWAL, class IX ,National English School, Kolkata

Many schools already offer coding as anelective subject and this is truly be-coming a hot pick among students, andwhy not – coding can be selected as a

mainstream career in terms of software devel-opment, webpage development, graphics for an-

imated movies, designing and much more. SAANCHI DESAI, class X, Gopal Sharma International School, Mumbai

Iwas first introduced to coding through an online cod-ing platform called Scratch. Scratch is a simple dragand drop style user interface that teaches beginnersthe basics of coding. I then moved on to other pro-

gramming languages such as Visual Basic and Java.

ESHUPRIYEH BELGOTRA, class X, NESISM, Mumbai

LEARNING POINT: The trait thathelps you become a coder is thatyou do rather cumbersome tasks invery unique ways, extracting maxi-mum out of it. It builds skills in anumber of corollary areas includingmaths, science, problem-solving,teamwork, project-based learning,creative arts, and more. As SteveJobs famously stated, “Codingteaches you how to think.”

LEARNING POINT: People general-ly have a misconception that itis a cake-walk which is nottrue. It can be a very hectictask to sit in front of a screen,surrounded by a black text offunctions and type thousandsof words. Being good in mathe-matics is also a plus.

LEARNING POINT: Oneneeds to gain proficiency inprogramming languagesand have a good level of

knowledge of high schoolmaths to solve algorithm-

related mathematics. Thebest way to learn it is through

sites such as Udemy.

LEARNING POINT: To becomea coder one has to be dedi-cated. You also need a logicalmind that is bent towardsproblem solving and step bystep (or machine) thinking.Besides this, you need patience.

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WHY CODING? CAN’T I PURSUE IT LATER?

➤ In short, learning to code at a youngage provides you more future opportuni-ties. As you will learn, the data does notlie. According to the Bureau of Laborsoftware developers, medium pay is$103,560 (`73,22,675.82) per year withdemand expected to increase by 24%per year from 2016–2026. This hike isfaster than in average occupations!

➤ Coding, or comput-er programming, is acreative process pro-grammers perform totell a computer how toperform a task. At itsfoundation, it involveswriting computer pro-grams using program-ming languages.

➤ Coding for kids isusually taught usingcontent that is of highinterest, while creat-ing projects thatinvolve creative input.

➤ In short, coding forkids is typically gami-fied making it fun forkids to learn!

What is Codingfor Kids?

A woman with a book and a pen has the power to move nations. Awoman with a mind and a voice has the power to change worlds

-Sasha Temerte 05CAREERS