VIPLE Programming in Middle School Education

Learning to code is a skill that is becoming increasing needed as technology advances, yet is absent in traditional education. This thesis aims to provide a resource for middle school teachers to introduce programming skills and concepts to their students over several lessons designed to fit within the constraints of a standard class period. By targeting students in middle school, if they develop an interest, they will have enough time in middle or high school to prepare themselves for a degree in Computer Science or to complete a programming boot camp after they graduate high school. Additionally, middle school students are old enough to understand challenging programming concepts and work together to solve a programming challenge. The programming language and environment, VIPLE, will be used to teach the concepts in the lessons as it is a graphical programming language, which removes many of the common challenges faced by young students in learning to code, like dealing with syntax or remembering keywords for coding blocks.