We believe it is important to prepare our students for a future workplace — one that most likely requires problem solving, project design, and exceptional communication skills. For this reason, boys in first through fifth grade spend time each year participating in a coding class. Boys learn the programming concepts of sequencing, loops, conditionals, functions, and variables. Most importantly, boys see themselves as creators and designers of interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations. All this work isn’t easy; coding helps develop perseverance, a great quality which can lead to future success.

PDS sixth graders take their coding skills and actively apply them in robotics class. This highly engaging class asks the boys to build a robot from a Lego set and program it to complete various tasks. It doesn’t take long for the boys to realize that even the simplest task requires the integration of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. But, the boys don’t view this as work; they enthusiastically partake in this multimodal curriculum.