My Coding Experience
When I was first introduced to programming all I knew was that it was another language I probably wouldn’t learn fluently any time soon, and to this day (although my programming experience has only lasted a few weeks) I can still only complete basic programming tasks. But even so, just knowing that I can program a game of Rock Paper Scissors without any mistakes or that I can create a Buzzfeed-esque quiz with much the same result is enough of an accomplishment for me!
I started like most students do in coding, which was with Scratch in ninth grade. The drag based coding program was a smooth introduction that didn’t overwhelm but neither did it prepare for the intensely confusing language of Python that I was later exposed to in tenth grade. We were taught the basics before given tasks, the first of which looked like this:
This mess of instructions was just the baby steps into coding something of use, as I’m not sure the following outcomes had much use in anything but my own amusement.
Then came the bigger, more “complicated” tasks that took me two or three lessons to finally figure out. There was a task to create a program in which you input your name and the computer welcomes you if your name isn’t Barry! This was a quick and simply way into understanding “if’s”, “else’s” and “elif’s”, which are all vital in programming. But back when I started coding I had no idea how important they were, meaning all of my coding was riddled with mistakes and it took me a solid hour to figure out the first task on the first level of programming!
After getting past the Greeter task I began coding with a friend, and with our combined knowledge the two of us were able to quickly and efficiently code quizzes, which ended up being my favourite activity! We created two different quizzes, one of which was lost after I forgot to hit save before logging off, one which told you how good of a 2000s music fan you are and the other determining whether you are a cat person or dog person. But as the music quiz was the only one to survive I’ll use it as proof of our work:
Outcome:
Overall this entire project was such a huge and valuable learning experience for me and I really hope that this information will stay with me forever. Coding is an incredibly vital skill and language to learn in this day and age, considering everything we rely so heavily on work via programming. And although all I know how to do is program a few quizzes and a game or two just that basis of knowledge is not only fun to have but also useful! And the entire learning experience was so fun I don’t think I’ll ever forget coding classes!
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