App review by James Denby, Common Sense Education | Updated June 2019

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Coding Galaxy

Name: Coding Galaxy
Item: Coding Galaxy
Rating: 3
Author: James Denby

Conventional puzzle app best integrated with unplugged lessons

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Learning rating

Editorial review by Common Sense Education

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Grades

K–3 This grade range is based on learning appropriateness and doesn't take into account privacy. It's determined by Common Sense Education, not the product's publisher.

Subjects & Skills

Critical Thinking

Great for

Instructional Design, Game-Based Learning, Media Literacy, Coding

Take a look inside

12 images

Students are tasked with completing coding missions.

The coding activities have an all-too-familiar format.

The app is free but other materials are not.

Students earn stars for completing levels.

Collaborative assignments can be assigned by teachers.

The teacher dashboard provides an overview of lesson progression.

The curriculum includes unplugged activities.

Lessons include reflection and discussion.

Lesson plans include student worksheets.

Worksheets help teach concepts like sequencing.

Only some lessons are available in the 14-day trial.

Pros: Offers a complete set of paid lesson plans to accompany the app.

Cons: The app by itself isn't likely to take students very far; pricing information for lesson plans lacks transparency.

Bottom Line: If you combine the free app with the paid lesson plans, you'll be able to offer a good introduction to key coding concepts.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

By itself, the Coding Galaxy app isn't likely to build a strong foundation for programming or computational thinking skills. The familiar format may appeal to students initially, but many will lose interest after completing a few of the missions. Combined with the teacher-led lessons, however, Coding Galaxy has much more potential. These lessons are best as a mini-unit in which each session includes in-class, unplugged activities involving discussion and small group work and then short chunks of time with the app.

One potential use of Coding Galaxy is as a warm-up unit to build conceptual skills (around things like decomposition, for example) before moving on to coding original projects with Scratch.

What Is It?

Coding Galaxy is an app for students in K-3 designed to teach basic elements of coding through 20 independent and five collaborative learning missions. There's also a competitive esports option available. The app follows the familiar pattern of many other learn-to-code puzzle apps: Students have to put together a string of code blocks (e.g., turn left, jump, etc.) to navigate through to an end goal. The app can be used by itself, or teachers can register and create an online classroom through the teacher dashboard to monitor student progress.

Coding Galaxy stands out a bit from the many other puzzle-based coding apps because of the (paid) computational thinking curriculum available to teachers who sign up. The handouts that go with each lesson plan include role-plays, discussions, and hands-on physical activities to help students develop a deeper understanding of key concepts in computational thinking without the app. These unplugged (offline) activities focus on concepts such as sequencing, decomposition, loops, pattern recognition (abstraction), parallelism, and collaboration. Lessons are designed to meet standards from the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) in computational thinking and computing practice and programming. Teachers who sign up for a free 14-day trial can get access to the first three lessons from the curriculum.

Is It Good for Learning?

As far as the app goes, Coding Galaxy is pretty typical of many of the other learn-to-code apps out there. Students put code blocks together to make a character collect rewards and reach an end goal. For many students, this type of activity quickly loses its appeal, so the learning is limited.

The Coding Galaxy curriculum, however, offers a broader range of activities that support the teaching and learning of important concepts in computational thinking. Lessons mix unplugged activities that allow for discussion, reflection, and skill-building with time working in the Coding Galaxy app. Rather than just doing one puzzle after another in the app, this lays a foundation for deeper learning. Each of the available sample lessons is approximately 60 minutes long and is easy for teachers with little or no coding experience to implement.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating

Engagement Would it motivate students and hold their interest? Is it visually appealing? Would it inspire teachers to try something new or change their instruction?

Students may quickly get bored with the puzzles in the app. The lesson plans, which include discussions and hands-on physical activities, are more likely to hold their interest.

Pedagogy Does the tool help teachers promote a more student-centered experience? Will students gain conceptual understanding or think critically? Does it deepen teachers’ pedagogical thinking?

The app offers very familiar coding puzzles: Students put code blocks together to collect rewards and reach an end goal. Paid lessons include reflection and skill-building activities that promote deeper learning.

Support Can students and teachers get assistance when they need it? Is it created with people of different abilities and backgrounds in mind? Is learning reinforced and extended beyond the digital experience?

The lesson plans are good guides for teachers interested in computational thinking. In-app support is fairly clear.

Common Sense reviewer

James Denby Educator/Curriculum Developer

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