PYTHON CODING PROJECTS FOR KIDS

Where we tell you about interesting coding projects that children can work on with Python

With Coronavirus continuing its march and leaving us hunkered down and the summer underway, there has never been a better time for children to dedicate their time and efforts towards working on interesting STEM projects. In this blog, we bring you some fascinating coding projects that kids can work on this summer. All of them need a basic knowledge of Python, a popular coding language and the projects are really fun assignments that also score high on their utility quotient.

Below we have shared the Python coding projects in alphabetical order, along with their corresponding details explained in simple videos.

Digital Photoframe

About the coding project: This is a simple and cool project where you create a digital photo frame using your Raspberry Pi. You can use random, free images (bear in mind that they are free to use but not to distribute as one’s own, so please check the image rights before using it in your project) from websites such as Unsplash or even NASA for the photo frame. You can also use/ add your own images in a folder on your PC and watch them in the digital photo frame one at a time in a random fashion. The duration for each image can also be configured as per your preference.

Extensions (how you can extend the scope of the project): Web interface to upload photos, Bluetooth controls, image transitions

What you need:

• Raspberry Pi (Any variant)

• LCD screen for the Raspberry Pi (Any maker/company)

• Basic Knowledge of Python

• Basic Knowledge of PyGame

• Urllib to retrieve images from the web

• OS module in Python

Approximate duration to build the project: 2–3 hours

Emotion / Smile Detection using OpenCV

About the coding project: Emotion detection is a very new and upcoming aspect of Machine Learning (ML). Here we look at a simple implementation of how we can detect if a person is smiling or not. We utilize pre-trained classifiers, aka Haar Cascades (a Machine Learning object detection algorithm used to identify objects in an image or video) to detect smiles. Such a project may be used in many areas such as restaurants or apparel stores.

Extensions: Face detection, eye detection, pet detection (where one can detect when a pet leaves the house)

What you need:

• Basic knowledge of Python

• Basic knowledge of OpenCV

• Webcam (In built/USB)

*Can be implemented on a Raspberry Pi with the Picamera and OpenCV

Approximate duration to build the project: 2 to 8 hours

Mine Catcher

About the coding project: Mine Catcher is a fun and interesting game where you uncover squares one by one and try to detect mines based on the number shown on the blocks. The goal of the game is to flag all the mines. Bonus points for doing it quick.

Extensions: Add multiple levels of difficulty to make it more challenging. A leaderboard would add to the fun as well.

What you need:

• Basic knowledge of Python

• Basic knowledge of Tkinter

• Use object-oriented programming to make it simpler.

Approximate duration to build the project: 2 to 8 hours

Simple Teleprompter

About the coding project: Yet another fun project would be putting together a simple teleprompter. It is a useful tool to have; more so for kids practising for school debates and speeches. The tool allows one to load one’s text and render it on the screen in a size and color of one’s preference and one can also scroll through this text at a chosen speed.

Extensions: Text to speech, speech to text, typing speed calculator

What you need:

• Basic knowledge of Python

• Basic knowledge of Tkinter

• Additional features in Tkinter: widgets, frames

Approximate duration to build the project: 8 to 10 hours

Weather Station (using Raspberry Pi and Sense Hat)

About the coding project: This is a project that clubs the fun of coding with the joy of tinkering with some hardware. The key component here is the Raspberry Pi Sense Hat, essentially an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi. Containing an 8x8 RGB LED (Red Green Blue Light Emitting Diode) matrix, the Sense Hat also comes with sensors to measure temperature, pressure and humidity, in addition to its accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. Thus, there are many things one can track using a Sense Hat and it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that a simple weather station just scratches the surface.

Extensions: Displaying other information about the city, creating a Tkinter GUI (Graphical User Interface) to set the information to be displayed along with its format/configuration, and building a compass with the Sense Hat.

What you need:

• Basic knowledge of Python

• Basic usage of Raspberry Pi Sense Hat

Approximate duration to build the project: 2 to 4 hours

(This blog was originally posted in the Blogs section of the YoungWonks website on July 09, 2020 under the headline: Python Coding Projects for Kids This Summer. To read more such blogs and to claim a free trial coding class for your child, please visit: https://www.youngwonks.com/

Blog written by: Team YoungWonks (Written by: Vidya Prabhu; Illustration by Leonel Cruz)