Code-Camp Lux - learn, code, play

If you are new to coding and would like to learn the basics using simple drag and drop programming in a homely atmosphere, while playing with a 12 year old - this is the workshop you should sign up for!

An hour of Code - May - June Session Announcement

Limited spaces available:

1. Saturday 11 am to 12 noon - 1 space ***Girls only batch

2. Saturday 4:30 - 5:30 pm - 2 spaces

3. Sunday 4:30 - 5:30 pm - 4 spaces



Looking forward to welcoming you!

Start from Scratch

Literally start from Scratch!

The group has started using Scratch to design their own application. The first one was an 'About Me' page where they chose to write code to say something about themselves. They also wrote code to make some action happen on the About Me page. eg. make the football roll from one side of the room to the other, make their cat purr a 'meow' sound.

The next session was devoted to making a dance party. The children came up with very interesting ideas and then showed the work to the rest of the class at the end of the session.

Internet and terms associated with it

The session talking about the internet was very interesting because the children hear and use so  many terms related to the internet and may not really know what it means. It was a good opportunity to talk about internet safety as well.

During the activity, some servers were given IP addresses and the programmer had to take a message to the designated server The number of packets the message had to be broken into, the domain name of the server and method of transfer (wifi, DSL.cable, fiber) was specified. The programmer used the DNS table to decipher which IP address it had to be sent to given the domain name.

The message sent by fiber could be carried with both hands holding it firmly. The message to be sent via DSL/cable had to be carried on the head so there was a chance of dropping. When the message was sent via wifi, it was not only carried on the head, but also, I blew on the packets so there was  a higher chance of losing packets.

It was a good lesson and everyone went back understanding how the internet works, the concept of data packets, DNS table, IP address, URL etc. We also discussed why wifi was used despite it having the chance of losing the packets.

Relay Programming

Graph paper programming with a team

To make the best of sunny spring weather, we did relay programming out in the park. It bulds on the graph paper programming done several weeks ago. Children were divided into teams and had to write one instruction at a  time taking turn like in a relay race. It showed the importance of checking the work and writing programs in a proper sequence.

The fact that most programs are written in teams in real life, was very well displayed. It also showed that if the team decides on using a particular method in order to help the next team member, it could be made more efficient.

Abstraction

Writing stories, coming up with a template to understand abstraction!

In this session we filled in the blanks to complete a story and saw that people can come up with different stories even by replacing the blanks. While some kids wrote a recipe to make cake, others wrote a story to make the worlds most inedible shoe and others to make an incredible video game! It was certainly creativity at it's best!
 
Then we looked at two stories using the template, figured out the template and made up our own story using that template. It was interesting to see that 'abstraction' was easy to grasp using this simple activity.

Thereafter we went back to coding where we left off. Some children also started Scratch and made a cat dance to music as the first exercise.

Learning Functions with Songs

Functions with song writing


Last weekend, we sang songs to learn about functions. Whenever the word 'Chorus' came within the song, no one sang the word but instead went to where the Chorus of the song was defined and sang it.

It was indeed interesting to see that it was so intuitive to do so! Then we learned about passing  parameters into the functions again via songs.

Then we made up a song and passed different parameters to change the chorus like in Old Mc Donald where the sound changes although chorus remains the same.

Girls and Moms code to celebrate IWD

IWD Celebration - Girls and Moms join hands to code

The IWD celebration on the theme of 'inspiring change' announced in February, for the Hour of Code free session for girls started filling up with registrations of interested participants. The wort.lu article about it helped to boost the awareness and more registrations came in.













It gives me great pleasure that it was a grand success! Not only did the girls learn to code but the Moms who were waiting with them also did! The binary coding activity was well received by the 11 girls who came to experience that coding is not so difficult and can be quite a fun experience. After trying their hand at simple drag and drop programming, some of them instantly signed up to continue for the next sessions!

The hot chocolate and cookies was a welcome break after using the coding skills for an hour. Looking forward to inspiring more girls to enjoy coding!

International Womens Day 2014 Celebration

After attending this session, the participants can register on the spot for regular sessions for the next 4 weeks at the following times :

Saturdays 10 - 11 am
Saturday 4:30 - 5:30 pm
Sunday 4:30 - 5:30 pm
 

Solving Real-world problems using Computational thinking

Recently, one of the students/co-instructor of the class got an award from Delhaize for solving a real-world problem using computational thinking steps learnt in class :

Last Sunday, 20 minutes before the store closed, AD Delhaize (Strassen), 1 rte d'Arlon, 8009 Strassen, Luxembourg faced an operational issue. The entry door in the parking floor stopped working. The shoppers could not enter Delhaize and those who had finished shopping could not enter the parking floor. Two officials of the store who were on the parking floor for managing trolleys, tried their best but could not open the door. The customers trying to enter, started to feel frustrated, as all the grocery shops in Luxembourg would close in the next 20 minutes as it was a Sunday. Customers on the other side were equally restless, as there was no other way to reach the parking floor with their loaded trolleys. It was an embarrassing moment marring reputation of Delhaize. 

One smart 12-year computer science student, analyzed the problem, applied computational thinking and opened the door to the astonishment of the customers waiting on both sides. They clapped for this intelligent boy, named Atreyam Sharma. Thereafter, the door started working normally. Not only did the boy save the reputation of the store, but saved them spending possibly hundreds of euros to call in a Technician to resolve the problem. As a gesture of appreciation, the management of Delhaize recognized the contribution of Atreyam by inviting him to meet Director-in-charge of the store who personally spent time with him and handed over rewards.

Cheers to Delhaize! Cheers to Atreyam!! Real-world problems - beware of the programming enthusiasts in Luxembourg!!!

Graph paper programming

Session 3

As always, we started with a review session of the last lesson. Then we got onto writing algorithm to draw a pattern made on graph paper such as shown below.

First we wrote text to describe it. Everyone soon realized why it was important to use code or programming key to write algorithms. So we then replaced the text by symbols. Then the class was able to see that if the same symbol was repeating, it is possible to come up with an easier way to depict it. For example

                           instead of 



We then got into the concept of functions and parameters. After that everyone wrote shorter algorithms instead of the long one originally written, using functions and parameters, to draw the pattern. Then they passed onto a fellow mate to try to make the pattern to see if the instruction set was good.

 

Some children also opted to do a more difficult pattern with two colours and used functions in an optimal manner. Overall a good session where basic concepts used in many programming languages was explained in simple words! After the break with warm milk and cookies, it was time to try different coding games like light-bot, kodable or code.org to practice the concepts learned.

Another nice weekend of coding completed!