How to give back to the world? Czarodzieje Kodu case-study
It has been almost a month since Czarodzieje Kodu took place in Poznań. There are few reasons why I am writing about it so late. First one is really simple: I needed a break. Three months of organising an event after my regular working hours, voluntarily, with a group of other awesome people, can be really challenging and exhausting. Second reason is connected with my reflection on: is Fandom Engineering a right place to write about such a topic?
After talking with several people I came to the conclusion that this is the right place and I am ready to try my writing skills and share the idea with you! I will just do my best to keep it as less personal and emotional as possible ;-)
Czarodzieje Kodu what does it even mean?
Devoxx is a quite popular Java conference and one day few attendees decided one day they could share their knowledge with children. So, they came up with a name similar to the “conference for adults” and started a non-profit organisation.
Its goal is to teach children Computer Programming. They share know-how and materials with anyone who is willing to start a local, similar initiative. Such group first appeared in Poland about 5 years ago. In the following years we organised events in such cities as: Poznań, Radomsko, Warszawa and Wrocław.
After five years in Poland, people who still wanted to continue this work, decided to start a foundation and go with their own brand: Czarodzieje Kodu. The idea behind it was the same and we were not ashamed of our history with Devoxx4Kids :-)
The new name is just more local and simple to pronounce or remember for parents. The “legal body” in the form of the foundation will help us organise events easier and faster.
Czarodzieje Kodu in direct translation means: The Code Wizards 🧙♂️
Teaching children Computer Programming — how is it even possible?
How can you teach a six-years-olds Java or Python or JavaScript?! 🙀The key-thing is: you do not have to. Start with the basics and teach logical thinking, binary system and basic concepts in programming like: instructions, variables and loops.
We divide all attenders of our free conference into four groups: 6+, 8+, 10+ and 12+. Children who are 6 or 7 years old this year had workshops with a thread and beads which they use to write their names with a special “code”. This way they learnt binary system.
Kids between 8 and 9 years old learnt concepts of conditions and loops by helping a monkey to get its bananas in Code Monkey or similarly by creating their own robots in Scratch.
10 and 11 years old and older that are more fluent with reading and can be introduced to more complex tools like Python. They learned basic concepts like variables, conditions and loops and were able to create their own arcade game at the end of the course! They also used well-known tool which is called Scratch to control a robot.
Children in the group 12+ were the most advanced and basically proved the first paragraph of this section is false. In fact, they learnt JavaScript and were able to create their own game with Phaser game framework. This was also a group which worked with Arduino and its different sensors.
Thanks to our sponsors we had a few boxes of ScottieGo and borrowed tablets (thank you BeCreo and Fandom) which was enough to prepare classes for two groups 6+ and 10+. Of course the biggest emotions where in the first group :-)
How did I start?
Four years ago one of the Devoxx4kids Poznań organisers asked me if I wanted to teach kids how to code. I had no idea how to teach kids coding but I was quite eager to help and I initially agreed. Unfortunately, the initial date of the event did not work well with my business trip plans.
Luckily next year, in 2016, I made it! I volunteered to update the webpage and help with the Scratch workshops for 8+ group. I still remember how nervous I was at the first hour of classes. Luckily, kids were awesome students and thanks to the materials and help from organisers we made it :-)
Next year was similar with a small change — I was leading the workshops. From 2018 I focused more on supporting the organisers. However, in 2018 to my surprise had Scratch workshops again ;-) This year I did not volunteer to lead any workshops. I focused entirely on organising the event. And… I hope to yet again switch to focus on workshops in 2020.
This is my story and answer to the question. You can just ask around because most of us work in the IT companies in Poznań. Also there is quite a chance your colleagues keep helping us every year! Or just contact us on Czarodzieje Kodu on Facebook.
Summary
Many of us work hard every day to be in the places we currently are at. Yet, there is also a little bit of luck as we were born in this part of the world and we were able to focus on our education and dreams. Let’s be thankful for the luck and give back to the world!
Czarodzieje Kodu is just one small example how people from Fandom and other IT/media companies in Poland give back. And it really does not take much to start!
For the more pragmatic readers I hope the article can also be useful by placing the links to different tools which may help you teach your kids coding. Enjoy!
Also, it is yet another occasion to send my gratitude and big thanks to all the sponsors and volunteers who have been helping or helped with the event. THANK YOU! ❤️
