Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: How is coding creative?

30 minutes

Find Out: What does it mean to be a coder?

15 minutes

Take Action: Think like a coder

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

develop an understanding of coding careers and skill sets
explore coding careers across the industry.

Success criteria

Students can:

discuss coding careers, including the necessary skills and industry uses
propose a basic coded solution to a real-world problem.

Tune In: How is coding creative?

Step 1

Begin by asking students to visualise themselves as professional coders. Provide these prompts to help them create a picture in their minds:

What is my workplace like?
What kind of traits and skills do I need?
What kind of projects might I be working on?
Do I interact with my colleagues?
Is my work fun? Boring? Creative? Mathematical? Hard? Easy?

Step 2

Explain that some of what students imagined is probably correct about being a professional coder, but what we imagine and what is reality don't always match. Tell students that we're going to dive into some misconceptions to get a clearer idea of what being a coder actually is and isn't.

Make sure each student has a copy of the Becoming a Coder Activity Worksheet.

As a class, consider each row of the table of misconceptions (Activity 1 in the Activity Worksheet). For each row, discuss how the ‘Reality’ column differs from what students might have visualised at the start of the lesson.

Misconception	Reality
Coding is for people who are good at maths.	Coders don't rely on high-level Maths skills. They solve problems by breaking them down into steps and decisions.
Coders work alone.	Coders often work in teams that collaborate frequently. The team can include user experience (UX) designers and other specialists.
Coding isn't creative.	Coders use their skills to create solutions that solve problems. These solutions include websites, apps, games and more.
Coding is repetitive.	A big part of coding is finding ways to make the computer do the repetitive stuff. This requires creativity.
Coders work on boring projects.	Coders participate in projects for just about anything – environmental, social, financial, entertainment and logistics.
Coding is like magic – impossible to understand!	Coding is not magic. An amazing app or game is the result of pieces of code written and connected together.

Step 3

Depending on your students’ prior knowledge, highlight that now we know what a coder is and isn’t. Ask students to pair-share what they understand the work of coding to be. Invite students to share their answers. Outline that coding is the process of writing instructions that tell a computer what to do.

Computers cannot understand human language the way we do, so programmers use special programming languages (such as Python or JavaScript) to give clear, step-by-step instructions. These instructions might tell a computer how to display a website, run an app, analyse data or control a device. At its core, coding is breaking a problem into smaller steps and telling the computer how to solve each step. For example, coding might tell a computer:

what happens when someone clicks a button
how a game character moves
how to calculate a result
how to store or display information.

Find Out: What does it mean to be a coder?

Step 1

Suggest to students that the skills necessary for coding are more common than they might think.

Present slides 2–6 in the Coding Visual Explainer. Identify what each example is – sheet music, a recipe, a traditional dance diagram, a support flow chart and an example of Python language. Ask students to think-pair-share what these examples all have in common. (Answer: they provide instructions for someone or something to follow.)

Step 2

Direct students to look at the table in Activity 2 of their Activity Worksheet. Explain the activity by drawing attention to the questions in the left-hand column. Model (or complete as a class) the first image example of sheet music (suggested answers below).

Organise students into small groups. As the class views each slide, ask them to fill in the Activity 2 table of their Activity Worksheet for examples 2–5.

Step 3

Briefly discuss answers as a class, choosing a different group of students to talk about each example. (Suggested answers below and on slide 5 of the Visual Explainer.)

	Example #1	Example #2	Example #3	Example #4	Example #5
What is the purpose of this code?	To provide the tune and words for a song	To provide ingredients and instructions for cooking	To teach a dance	To give someone very basic advice for tech support	To calculate a dog's age in human years
Who / what will follow this code?	A singer or someone playing an instrument	A person baking food	A person learning to dance, or a dance instructor	A person who doesn't have tech support around	A computer or other device
What language does this code use?	Musical notation	English	A kind of foot diagram	A flowchart	Python, a popular computer language
Write down any decisions in this code (e.g. If this then do that).	The second time, a different second half is sung.	Cold water is added only if the apples cook dry	(None)	Only ask for help after you've been trying for half an hour	If the user entered a negative age, it spits out an error
Write down any loops in this code (e.g. go back and do again)?	The first half of the song is repeated.	(None)	(None, but the whole thing probably repeats)	We go back to the first step over and over	(None)

Ask students what they think this activity has to do with learning about coding. Explain that just like sheet music or a recipe, coding is a way of writing clear instructions in a specific language for something to follow – and coders write these instructions for computers.

Step 4

Highlight that coders are employed in a wide range of industries. Direct students to Activity 3 in their Activity Worksheet and discuss 6 of the most popular industries that employ professional coders.

Cybersecurity: protecting people’s data from hackers.
Online shopping and marketplaces: building systems that recommend, price, and deliver products.
Healthcare systems and diagnostics: writing code that supports doctors and patient care.
Gaming (AR/VR): creating immersive digital worlds and experiences.
Finance and online banking: managing money securely and efficiently.
Education platforms and tools: designing how people learn online.

Ask students to answer the 2 questions below the list of industries in Activity 3, then discuss their responses as a class.

Which industry has the highest responsibility and why?
What could go wrong if the code in this industry failed?

Step 5

Now that students have considered some of the most popular industries employing coders, explain that they will look at a case study of a ‘day in the life of a coder’. Ask students to read the case study about Michelle, a junior programmer, in their Activity Worksheet.

As a class, discuss the following 4 ‘human’ skills (sometimes referred to as ‘soft’ skills), categorising them as ‘helpful’ or ‘essential’ for a professional coder to have. Encourage students to refer to evidence from the case study to support their answers. Explanations are provided for each skill:

Problem-solving: Coders are designers, no matter what language they code in. e.g. A game developer might need to figure out how to make something more fun while overcoming technical limitations.
Communicating and collaborating: Creating a software solution means being able to articulate your ideas to your team and take feedback and ideas on board.
Attention to detail: When coding in a professional setting, the details matter. Coders need precision and accuracy to minimise errors creeping into the solution.
Adaptability: Because you're in digital technology, you can expect your tools, languages and even the way teams work to change over time.

Step 6

Point out to students that there are many different pathways through education and work experience to become a coder. Present the last 3 slides in the Visual Explainer. Briefly discuss the differences between the pathways, emphasising that there isn't one way to a coding career.

Step 7

Explain to students that they are about to do something that coders are very familiar with – finding a bug.

Introduce students to the small code segment in Activity 5 of their Activity Worksheet. Pair students and give them a few minutes to find the bug in the program. (A bug is an error or mistake in code so that it behaves differently from what is expected.)

Answer: The bug is hiding in the way the number of attempts is checked. Currently, the code asks whether attempts are less than 3, but it should be asking whether attempts are greater than 3. This is a very common type of logic bug in code.

Take Action: Think like a coder

Step 1

Explain to students that coders use a lot of their time designing a solution, even before they start coding.

Organise the class into small groups. Ask each group to select one of the following problem stories and fill out the table in Activity 6 of their Activity Worksheet to start thinking about a solution that could become a mobile app.

I'm a student who needs to keep track of which homework is due first, so I don't run out of time.
I'm a volunteer who wants to reduce waste from student lunches to keep the school cleaner.
I'm a kid who wants all household chores split evenly at home, so I don't have to work more hours than my brother.

Highlight that students don’t need to write any code – instead, they will plan the step-by-step instructions the app would follow to solve the problem. These instructions are the logical steps a computer program would follow.

Step 2

If time remains, encourage student groups to present their solution designs to the class. Students can present it in a visual, flow-chart format.

Learning extension: Students could be encouraged to think about:

Decisions (If something happens, what should the app do?)
Loops (Should any steps repeat?)

For example, if homework is due tomorrow, move it to the top of the list.

Reflection

Prompt students to think-pair-share a trait they already have that suits the role of a coder.

Have a class discussion by considering how AI is changing the coding space in two directions at once: it is making it easier to build, but it may also make it harder to develop a deeper understanding of how coding and software engineering actually work. To support this reflection, ask:

How might AI make coding more accessible for beginners, and what might be the trade-off in how deeply they understand what they’re creating?
What might be gained and what might be lost if people rely heavily on AI tools when learning to code?

Becoming a Coder

Go to

Summary

Learning intentions

Success criteria

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills Required

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Information

Related Professional Learning

In this lesson

Becoming a Coder

Go to

Summary

Learning intentions

Success criteria

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills Required

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Information

Related Professional Learning

In this lesson