The Next Generation of Programmers

Josiah Quincy School S.T.E.A.M. Expo

“Oh man, the next generation is going to put us all to shame.” That’s the conclusion we came to yesterday. The staff of Launch Academy spent the morning at Josiah Quincy Elementary - a somewhat secluded Boston Public School located in the outskirts of Chinatown.

After following an internal brick walk, and winding our way up stairwells and hallways filled with student artwork, we came to a brightly colored library filled with books, computers, and eager little learners from Kindergarten through 5th Grade.

We exposed the energetic tots to Code.org. What we expected was a very careful walk through coding, in very simple terms. Instead what appeared was a flurry of skating Elsa’s from Disney’s Frozen. Angry Birds followed code prompts to chase green-faced pigs. Adding line by line, the students built their own code - ‘move forward’ then ‘turn left’ then ‘move forward’ then ‘turn right’.