{"id":14201,"date":"2018-11-26T13:38:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T21:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/?p=14201"},"modified":"2023-10-27T03:47:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T10:47:20","slug":"the-4-cs-needed-for-the-21st-century-critical-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/the-4-cs-needed-for-the-21st-century-critical-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"The 4 C&#8217;s Needed for the 21st Century: Critical Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>The 4 C&#8217;s Needed for the 21st Century: Critical Thinking<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This holiday season, give the young people in your life opportunities to develop key 21st century skills like critical thinking and problem solving! In this second installment of our 4 C&#8217;s series (missed our post about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/the-4-cs-needed-for-the-21st-century-creativity\/\">creativity<\/a>?), you&#8217;ll learn how Tynker helps kids develop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/parents\/curriculum\/creating-with-code\/skills\/\">critical thinking skills<\/a> as they solve challenges using block-based coding and real-world programming languages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Understand cause and effect relationships, and make strategic choices based on this knowledge.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> When a child manipulates block-based code in Tynker, they have to choose the code blocks that will give them the results they want. Similarly, when an advanced programmer is writing code in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/code-the-web-html-javascript-css-and-python-with-live-preview\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tynker\u2019s Code Editor,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> they learn that mistakes in code syntax lead to problems in the project they\u2019re creating. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kids come to understand that, unlike communicating in most spoken languages, if a mistake is made when writing in a programming language, the recipient of the message&#8211;the computer&#8211;can\u2019t ask for clarification or understand what we mean based on \u201ccontext.\u201d There\u2019s a higher degree of specificity, of correctness, required. This is similar to performing the correct order of operations when completing a math problem: If a student does not solve the problem using the correct order of functions, the answer will not be accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Practice creativity by making original projects. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tynker activities feature tutorials that kids follow to complete project tasks, such as cloning leaves in one of our recent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/code-a-leaves-catching-game-to-celebrate-autumn\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seasonal projects<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But when coders design an original project in Tynker, sources of inspiration vary from favorite <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/see-what-inspires-future-inventor-henry\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">animals<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and sports stars to fictional characters,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ies,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and beyond. To bring their creative vision to life, kids need to draw on their understanding of how the code blocks or lines of code work and then experiment with those elements. It\u2019s in this creative space that kids can take risks and re-adjust their coding strategies as desired. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Synthesize: Make cool projects by building on others\u2019 ideas. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Tynker\u2019s Community Board allows users to tap into the wealth of coding experience offered by young coders around the globe. Kids can opt to remix others\u2019 projects and save a new copy of the product, personalized according to their vision of what the code can accomplish within a given project. And remixing others\u2019 projects gives kids yet another source of inspiration for their own future projects. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By developing critical thinking skills through coding, kids are preparing for success in school and their future careers. Most school subjects involve both following rules and creatively using them to generate new products. For example, in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/programming-better-math-skills-fun\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">math<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and English classes, students need to learn formulas (think: the order of operations, how to write a sentence) and understand how to use those rules to generate unique solutions when solving real-world math problems or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/programming-storytelling\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">writing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0their own story. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/how-coding-prepares-your-child-for-the-future\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">future<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a society will bring a host of challenges, and kids will be more ready to contribute when they can assess available data and come up with solutions through trial and error. Will your child use her critical thinking skills to come up with new ways to generate clean energy? Or leverage robot technology to help the elderly?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tynker offers 2,000+ interest-driven activities to introduce kids to the exciting world of coding. Whether they want to battle with friends in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/new-battle-with-friends-in-crystal-clash\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crystal Clash,<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/code-the-web-html-javascript-css-and-python-with-live-preview\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">edit Python pages,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or explore careers while coding with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/barbie\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Barbie,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the gift of a Tynker subscription will help them develop the critical thinking skills they\u2019ll need \u2014now and in the future!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0<a class=\"sf-button large accent standard \" href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/parents\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"text\">Explore Courses<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 4 C&#8217;s Needed for the 21st Century: Critical Thinking This holiday season, give the young people in your life opportunities to develop key 21st century skills like critical thinking and problem solving! In this second installment of our 4 C&#8217;s series (missed our post about creativity?), you&#8217;ll learn how Tynker helps kids develop critical thinking skills as they solve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510,53,52,108,12,124],"tags":[20,499],"class_list":["post-14201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-block-coding","category-coding-at-home","category-coding-at-school","category-college-and-career-readiness","category-ideas-and-tips","category-learn-to-code-resource","tag-coding-for-kids","tag-four-cs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The 4 C&#039;s Needed for the 21st Century: Critical Thinking - Tynker Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/the-4-cs-needed-for-the-21st-century-critical-thinking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 4 C&#039;s Needed for the 21st Century: Critical Thinking - Tynker Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 4 C&#8217;s Needed for the 21st Century: Critical Thinking This holiday season, give the young people in your life opportunities to develop key 21st century skills like critical thinking and problem solving! 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