On December 1st, I had the pleasure of visiting Alden Middle School to observe their event; Code the Maze! This was a very fun time for the kids and a great learning experience for them as well. Throughout the event I was able to get some exciting video of the students working on their mazes and even organizing their lines of code. The gathering was organized by Mrs. Riggi, the middle school librarian and Mrs. Moe, the public library’s librarian. They both believe that the students had a very fun time being able to build their own mazes with legos while listening to some upbeat tunes.

The objective of Code the Maze was to build a maze using legos and then being the first to complete their maze by using strips of paper that mimicked lines of code. These “lines of code” could be arranged in a sense that they could be read off as commands to direct their lego figurine through the maze to the exit. After a group would finish their own maze, they were encouraged to try other group’s mazes to test their code.

It is very important to have the children introduced to the field of coding and computers early on in their education as careers involving those skills are on the rise. After asking a few of the students some questions, we had found out that some of the students had already taken an interest in computers and coding and were partaking in the event to practice their organization and logic skills. This is a great step moving forward in the education of the middle school students, as it branches out into new subjects that are not normally introduced until later in a student’s career.