Celebrating Our Community: How Calia & Laurel became coders
In our latest blog post, Kumiko, our Director of Education is shining the light on two Grade 5 students who made the most of their quarantine by learning how to code their first game.
Meet Laurel and Calia — and get ready to be amazed!
If you participated in our first-ever Hackergal Day last June, you will definitely remember Calia and Laurel. These two Grade 5 students from Ottawa built their very own game — programmed entirely using text-based code — and presented it to hundreds of students, parents, and teachers across Canada. For our latest newsletter, we asked them to tell us more about how their game works and how they built it. Check it out!
When did you first start learning about coding and hackathons?
Laurel: For me, it was when Calia and I were on our first Robotics coding team in Grade 3. I learned about Hackergal from Mr. Burke, my teacher this year. He told our class about Hackergal Zoom classes that we would join.
Calia: It was the same for me. Laurel and I were on our first Robotics team together and we were the coders. Laurel and I are in the same class and we joined the Hackergal Zoom class together.
Tell us about your game! How does it work?
Calia: Our game is about getting our characters to complete obstacles. We had to code our Bitmojis to move, to jump over objects, and if they didn’t jump over the object, the Bitmoji would lose her life. But our character could try jumping over the obstacle again.
Laurel: We had to code our characters to lose their lives and to have the objects to block you.
We love the colourful graphics and characters! How did you choose the design features?
Laurel: For the graphics, we used an app called PNG Fuel that Kumiko showed us. We learned to upload pictures and put them in our game.
Calia: For the characters, we used an app called Bitmoji to customize our characters. We chose the skin colour, eye colour and hairstyle to look like each of us.
What is your favourite thing about coding?
Laurel: My favourite thing is seeing the finished project. It’s great to see the finished game. Then we know that we did the coding right.
Calia: My favourite thing about coding is that I can create a code to make a robot or my character in the game move and pick up things!
What is the hardest part for you?
Laurel: For me, the hardest part is making sure that we use the right code.
Calia: The hardest part for me was trying to get out every bug in the game to make sure that it always works.
What advice do you have for other students who want to code their own games?
Laurel: Keep trying, don’t give up and have a lot of patience.
Calia: It is super fun and you should try it for yourselves!
Thanks, Laurel and Calia! We couldn’t agree more — it’s so important to be persistent, even when the bugs are tough and the code is being stubborn. We’re so proud to call you Hackergals and can’t wait to see what you create in the future!
