A Good Free Intro Coding Course for High Schoolers

Kate Savage at Charity Bounce (shared with permission) recently asked about a good "taster" coding course for high schoolers.

(Charity Bounce inspires at-risk youth through basketball clubs and employment hubs.)

The course I've been using for the past year with potential apprentices is Grok Academy's "Python for Beginners." After trying quite a few, I’ve settled on this one for several reasons:

• It's free.

• It's short – most students can complete it in a few short sessions over a weekend.

• Many high school students already use Grok, so they may already have an account.

• It doesn’t require installing anything on their computer.

• It provides real-time feedback on code and offers helpful tips.

• Python is one of the top two programming languages they'll likely use in the real world.

I've also used this course with post-high-school apprentices to gauge their interest in coding before diving deeper with AI-supported projects.

Depending on the student's needs, you might want to register on their behalf and enrol them in the course so they can get started immediately. Registering with an existing Google or Microsoft account makes the process even quicker.

Got any high schooler(s) of your own who are learning to code? Hit reply and do share!

Andrew Walker
Technology consulting for charities
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-walker-the-impatient-futurist/

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