Let’s Code & Play
What the hack is Code & Play you may wonder? It is a one-week learning camp that teaches the basics of programming to kids between 10–13 years in a playful way. The course is a non-profit offer that we at Ideas Engineering want to provide to schools with children from disadvantaged families who do not have the means to enable their children to participate in paid programming courses. Last year we created a curriculum with the help of a Calliope Mini, a single board computer that was developed for educational purposes.
Back in February 2020 we successfully completed the first test run of our program with Axel Springer employees’ children during the winter school holidays. Full of new impressions and experiences we planned to have at least four more runs throughout the year. Our goal was to integrate the concept into everyday school life at local schools in Berlin. Therewith we want to do our part in training the “next generation devs”, encouraging interest in programming among the children and enable teachers to build up on the learnings at the same time.
Needless to say that Corona eventually prevented us from doing so over the past 1,5 years. But our goal remained unchanged and we continued our efforts in conducting the next Code & Play session as soon as the overall situation allows it again. This autumn the time had finally come!
Together with our network partners from PxP Embassy e.V. we contacted local schools in Berlin and were able to kickstart Code & Play 2021 with a 7th grade class at the Paul-Löbe-Schule in Berlin-Reinickendorf eventually.
The concept from last year basically remained the same. From the basics of programming on the first two days to three days full of hands-on projects like an alarm system for the door, a reading light, a digital ruler, and the waving robot at the end, to name a few. After our last camp Calliope launched a new generation of Calliope Mini with several new pre-installed experiments which we used to extend our introduction to the computer.
Nevertheless, we had to make some adjustments to make the learning camp suitable for school life. For instance, since we were part of an elective course at school, we had to split up the one-week concept over five weeks with 30 minutes shorter learning units to fit into the regular schedule. Each session was now 2 hours long incl. breaks. Additionally, we had to accommodate more time for repetition of the learning material as there was at least one week of interruption in between.
Here is what we learned over the course of the program:
- Keep in mind the pedagogical approach
None of us is a professional teacher or trainer, so often there is a tendency to show the solution hastily instead of letting the children look for it.
2. Larger group of children = larger group of trainers
While last year we had a group of six kids between 10–12 years of age the class now consisted of 14 kids between 12–13 years of age.
Although our trainer team already grew from 3 to 4 people, we had to split up the team and alternate the duos after two sessions. However, 2 trainers + 1 pedagogical guide is definitely the minimum staffing. A third trainer is needed as soon as the group of children gets bigger than 9 children.
3. Recaps are essential
Despite being a compulsory subject, not all children were able to attend all five sessions. A later entry or missing out a session in-between presented us with the challenge of making sure that everyone can always follow along. It is therefore very important to include enough time for recaps at the beginning of each class.
The program ended with a closing event at the auditorium of the Paul-Löbe-Schule. Besides families and friends, other teachers and students participated and learned about the different coding projects of our program and celebrated the successful completion of the 14 participants. The short video below captured the final day and introduces you to Mikolaj, who took part in Code & Play and wants to become a game developer in the future.
We are glad that we were finally able to conduct Code & Play and are grateful for the support of PxP Embassy e.V. as well as the great collaboration with the Paul-Löbe-Schule. However, this is just the start. We look forward to more rounds of Code & Play to come in the future.
You want us to host one of the next rounds of Code & Play at your school? Feel free to get in touch with us via hello@asideas.de
