Hi all!

We at Hatch Coding have been tremendously busy for the past many months. Unbeknownst to you, we have been hard at work, focused on innovation and creating v.2.0 of our software. We’ve also (finally!) given our software a name: Hatch Studio.

We chose the name Hatch Studio because we kept describing it as a place where students and teachers go to create and to learn by creating. In that sense, it is very much aligned with what the ancient Greeks meant by the term techne: learning by doing.

So, we think it is eminently fitting that our cloud-based software, which is the epitome of today’s technology, is a place for project-based learning: a modern-day, next-generation studio for learning by doing.

In the Studio, students learn the five core competencies of computer programming:

1. Requirements-based programming,
2. Computational Thinking,
3. Computational Logic,
4. Programmatic Research Skills, and
5. Knowledge, Creation, and Use of Syntax and Vocabulary

As students become more able computer programmers, developing the five core competencies through their work, they also practice critical thinking, creative thinking, and collaborative skills: aptitudes that must be fostered in order to develop true competency in computer programming. In fact, these aptitudes are the basis of most competencies required to succeed in the 4th industrial revolution.

More profoundly exciting than the choice of a name for our software are the product changes we have been working hard to deliver:

1. the integration of adaptive learning to Studio so that students (and teachers) have automated, personalized, suggestions about next projects to work on in order to have even skill development across the core competencies and their component parts,
2. automated teacher reports,
3. the development of 25 learning levels based on an analysis of four years of research that mapped student behaviour in the face of learning challenges and which informed us about how novice programmers become increasingly independent, skillful, and adept at programming
4. the development of 10 challenge levels—also known as 10 activity levels, or 10 levels of thought work, that move students toward increasingly more demanding and complex requirements-based programming

What does this mean in the grand scheme of things?

It means that Hatch Studio is ready to be used by classroom teachers in both primary and secondary school settings.

Contact us for more information about that and stay tuned for our next blog post where we will discuss what we are updating and revising in print and for classroom use.