The Agricoding project logo, text with leaves growing from it
 
 

What is Agricoding?

Agricoding seeks to bridge the gap in computer science education by bringing approachable computer science education to rural students through an educational game that is centered around agriculture.

In the game, the player can grow various types of crops, deter pests, and manage soil health, all through programming the behavior of farming drones. Programming is made simpler through the use of a block-based coding environment, allowing students to easily construct complex drone behaviors without having to worry about common programming pitfalls.

You can play a demo of the game at the bottom of this page.

Screenshot of a level in the Agricoding game
 

The Motivation

Students in rural areas of the country commonly lack access to quality computer science education due to their geographic distance from urban centers where the majority of computer science professionals are located. The lack of educational opportunities in the CS field leaves these rural students disadvantaged in a world where technical literacy and technical careers are becoming increasingly in demand.

This project is intended for use in rural K-8 classrooms. The aim of this project is to increase digital literacy and promote a sense of belonging and capability in computer science for these students.

 
A pixel art basil plant from Agricoding
A pixel art tomato plant from Agricoding
A pixel art wheat plant from Agricoding
 
 

Project Status

Agricoding was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the CSforAll program. We are grateful to be partnered with Granville and Jones county public schools in North Carolina to co-design and pilot test Agricoding in a real educational environment.

We are currently working with our research and county partners to co-design the game and ensure it not only offers a robust computer science and agriculture educational curriculum, but also that it will be fun for students to engage with and promote a love of learning.

 
A pixel art carrot plant from Agricoding
A pixel art soybean plant from Agricoding
A pixel art clover plant from Agricoding
 
 

Playable demo

You can try out a demo of Agricoding below! There is a full-screen button in the bottom right corner of the game to make it fit your screen. Hit ESC to exit full-screen.

This project is made possible with support from the National Science Foundation.

Special thank you to our project partners:
Jones County and Granville County