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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 1, 20 18 | 14 The first step is getting tested Call your local hearing centre to book a FREE hearing test appointment today. B ronte 2419 Marine Drive Call Debbie at 1-877-552-3915 H earing Sciences Audiology and Hearing Aid Centre TRUSTED PARTNER OF --------------------------------------------------------------- W m e & . Q C C A d v a n t a g e Leg ig n §} a lu m n i UBCCFappreciation ca NIHB, VAC and Worker's Compensation Provider Hearing tests are provided free of charge for adults ages 18 and older. Some conditions may apply. Please see clinic for details. Offer not valid in Quebec. Promo Code assault a lepar? Please pass the salt and pepper The w o rld m akes sense w ith b e tte r hearing . If you have hearing loss, certain letter sounds can be hard to distinguish. This makes it very easy to misunderstand what is being said. When hearing loss is not treated, you may have trouble hearing and distinguishing the letters F P K and T. Words that begin with the letter S can also be difficult to hear. The good news is, hearing aids can help restore these sounds and get you back into the conversation. NSP-BEES-OAKB NEWS Students learning the basics of computer coding Nikki Wesley/Metroland MP Pam Damoff, Vice Chair for the Status of Women, speaks with Bushra Habib, 11, about women learning to code. MP John Oliver and MP Pam Damoff announced $50 million in federal funding for the CanCode program, which funds coding and other digital skills training for Canadian youth to prepare them for the jobs of the future at James W. Hill Elementary School last Thursday morning. MPs announce $50M in funding to provide coding, digital skills development TIM WHITNELL twhitnell@burlingtonpost.com Teacher Debbie Evan­ gelista is constantly on the go inside the second- floor classroom with chil­ dren shooting hands up or waving them, frantically vying for her attention. The 27 pupils in her Grade 4 class at St. Chris­ topher School are both ea­ ger to learn and in need o f her help as the group of nine-year-olds try to navi­ gate their way through a subject a previous gener­ ation o f students would have no concept o f-- com ­ puter coding. Also in the room on this day is Oakville North-Burlington MP Pam Damoff. She was there to announce the Liberal federal govern­ ment's investment o f $50 million over two years, beginning with the cur­ rent school year, to sup­ port initiatives to provide coding and digital skills development to Canadian youths from kindergar­ ten to Grade 12. Damoff, joined by Oak­ ville MP John Oliver, shared this funding news at James W. Hill Elemen­ tary School in Oakville, where students provided the federal politicians with a look at their coding skills. The CanCode funding is intended to give 63,000 teachers across Canada the training and tools needed to teach digital skills and coding. " As the workforce be­ comes increasingly more technology-driven, cod­ ing and digital literacy are seen as essential skills for future jobs, particu­ larly in the fields o f sci­ ence, technology, engi­ neering and math (STEM)," Dam off told the Grade 4 students at the Burlington school. Computer coding is a system o f signals used to represent letters or num­ bers in transmitting mes­ sages in the development o f software, applications and websites. " When I was in Grade 4 there were no computers, no laptops, no iPhones. In Grade 4 we didn't even have calculators," she told the students, which elicited audible gasps from many o f the young­ sters. " It shows you how quick things change. The jobs that were there when I was in Grade 4 aren't here today. We want to make sure you are all pre­ pared for it. " We want to give you the education and skills you need, especially the girls in here, so you can get jobs in science, tech­ nology, engineering and math," Dam off added, be­ fore she walked about the room interacting asking some o f the kids about their coding work. Evangelista' s Grade 4 pupils are part o f the co­ hort learning to code through CanCode fund­ ing. The program Coding Quest is Canada' s largest classroom-based coding program available to pub­ licly-funded schools in English and French. " Coding doesn't re­ quire brilliance (only) confidence and determi­ nation," Evangelista told her students. Since the start o f the school year she has been in­ structing her pupils in the basics of coding language and principles for about 60- 90 minutes per week. Evangelista says she incorporates coding in­ struction via language and math classes. She says she got some o f her coding learning through a full-day professional de­ velopment day last fall provided by The Learning Partnership. Her students are work­ ing in teams o f two to learn coding basics through Scratch, a free programming language and online community that allows beginners to create interactive stories, games and animation. The goal this year for Evangelista's class is to design a basic video game. Some o f the pupils will take their digital cre­ ations to another school later this school year to demonstrate their game to other coding teams. • See CODING, page 15 mailto:twhitnell@burlingtonpost.com assault a lepar? Please pass the salt and pepper The world makes sense with better hearing. Students learning the basics of computer coding