Coding | Codingbug

Online coding clubs

Posted on December 21, 2021December 21, 2021 by Gicela

Since March 2020 we have been offering learning opportuities online tailored to suit different ages and abilities.

Primary

Our Coding in Scratch courses are suitable for children in Years 3 – 6. Every week, they create new projects carefully designed to help them grasp the key principles of computer programming. Each term, the children are challenged with puzzles that nurture and build their computational thinking skills. Our Scratch courses are ideal for any child starting their coding journey or for the more advanced coder who needs to be challenged a little more.

This acedemic year we’ve added a new course to our offer – Coding in Minecraft – in which the children learn to code inside the Minecraft environment. This course does not teach Minecraft, but rather how to use code to automate builds and make modifications to a Minecraft World and change game play. The children use block programming to achieve this, making it ideal for beginners.

Secondary

Our courses for secondary school students are designed to provide opportunities to learn to program in different coding environments, and to expand their knowledge using Python and JavaScript – two of the most popular computer programming languages. The students develop an understanding of the language as well write lots of code to make games and small applications. They get to collaborate with each other and develop their problem-solving skills. A new Creative Coding course starts in January 2022.

We also offer block programming for secondary school students as part of our Make Arcade Games or Make Web Apps courses. These courses are suitable for students in Years 7 – 9 and designed to help them learn more about the principles of computer programming and how to design and prototype a game or App.

With all our courses our aim to help students develop their coding skills… and have an enjoyable time while learning.

JavaScript for Teens course

Posted on December 14, 2021December 14, 2021 by Gicela

Over this Autumn term we offered our JavaScript for Teens course to secondary school students.

Coding in JavaScript can be challenging, and there aren’t any shortcuts to learning the language. Learning the principles of JavaScript will give the student the best start to coding for the web.

Neither is there a fast route to coding games if you don’t understand about data types, variables, conditionals, arrays, and so forth. This is precisely what JavaScript for Teens is about: understanding the JavaScript language from the ground up.

This term, the students learned to debug JavaScript in the console and wrote their first JavaScript programs using Codepen – a development environment for HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

A big shout out to all the students who participated this term; they did themselves proud. Next term, a new course on Creative Coding will teach students how they can use the P5 JavaScript library to make a webpage more interactive. The course is suitable for anyone who wants to be creative with code.

Playing games with the Meowbit

Posted on October 27, 2021October 27, 2021 by Gicela

This term, some of our students learned how to program the Meowbit and created their first Arcade games.

The Meowbit is a small handheld console for playing games. It can be programmed using graphical programming with the Microsoft Arcade platform.

The course teaches principles of computer programming and game design, which is a step up from programming in Scratch. The students learn about the physics of the game, creating animations and interactions with their characters. As always, there is plenty of problem solving challenges and a great sense of satisfaction when the game is completed.

Being able to test the game the students have created is part of the fun. This creates the perfect opportunity for feedback; is the game too easy or difficult? What can it be changed to make it better? Making changes, fixing bugs and finally publishing the game for the world to see is incredibly rewarding.

Our Make Arcade Games course is now open for registration for the November/December term.

Coding in Minecraft

Posted on October 14, 2021January 7, 2022 by Gicela

This term we have had a group of children learning to code in Minecraft. This course is not about learning to play Minecraft but about making modifications to a Minecraft world with code.

The course focuses on developing programming skills. As the course is targeted at primary school age children, we use an intuitive ‘drag and drop’ interface, similar to Scratch. All of the children have coded in Scratch before making it easier for them to get started. They learn how to create commands, write automated builds, change the weather with code, and so on. They can join the teacher’s Minecraft world or each other’s worlds.

Coding in Minecraft is a creative way of learning to code using a platform already enjoyed by many children.

In order to code in Minecraft students need a licensed copy of Minecraft Educational Edition, which is included as part of the course.

Our next Coding in Minecraft course is now open for registrations.

Reflections on online learning

Posted on October 11, 2021October 11, 2021 by Gicela

A day after the first lockdown was announced and schools in the UK were temporarily closed, we were prepared enough to pivot quickly to deliver our lessons online. So, 18 months’ on, I wanted to share some reflections on the experience of teaching coding to children online.

The first and most obvious thing to note is that the children were able to continue their coding journey uninterrupted. Moving entirely online has also enabled them to gain exposure to new platforms and accelerated the learning of new digital skills.

As I’ve writen previously, learning to code is like learning to swim; as the children get exposed to and become more confident navigating between different coding environments, they develop problem-solving skills and computational thinking.

Older children now have a very good command of the technology we use for the lessons. They are comfortable giving presentations and showing others how their projects are evolving week by week.

Unfortunately, while some younger children have not been able to join us online, those that have are all doing amazingly well – thanks in part to their parents and carers who in many cases haven’t been far away and able to assist with keyboard and computer skills! I cannot thank them enough.

I’m very proud of our secondary school students who have been coding throughout the pandemic. They have learned Python, Game Design, App Design and JavaScript. They can now write code to a good standard. They have learned programming, how to collaborate and solve problems.

Your children are all doing you proud.

A new term is just around the corner and all our courses are now open for registration.

Web design for kids

Posted on August 2, 2021August 2, 2021 by Gicela

During the last term of the academic year we offered the web design course for primary school children in KS2. Most of the children attending were in Year 5 & Year 6 and were already familiar with text based coding.

It was very challenging for the children to get started with HTML & CSS but once they understood the basic syntax, it was relatively easy for them to create their first web page. The theme of the course was to create a website about a pet or ‘virtual pet’. The course focused on teaching the children how to plan and prototype their website, then add the code to make it display on the browser and finally add the CSS to add the design elements.

We don’t use templates or existing code, so it was great to see a variety of websites that were built from scratch. They learned about image formats and file sizes, how to place the elements on a web page and create their own designs by adding CSS code.

A big well done to all the children that participated.

Here are some of the results:

Check out our Autumn courses

Learning game design

Posted on June 7, 2021June 15, 2021 by Gicela

Year 5 & Year 6 students who signed up to the Game Design course learned how to make pixel games with Bitsy. It was a great opportunity to learn to draw on a 8X8 pixel grid and create a story board for their games. Here is a taster of what they created.

Programming skills for young people

Posted on February 19, 2021February 19, 2021 by Gicela

I’ve now been teaching Scratch to children for over 8 years and am very pleased to see some of those children deciding to take Computer Science at GCSE.

For primary school children, I use Scratch, which is a block programming language developed by MIT. They now hosts millions of projects created by children worldwide. It has transformed the way we teach computing to children.

Children gradually journey from learning to use the keyboard to creating games and animations with Scratch. It doesn’t happen overnight; it is like learning to swim. It takes perseverance, patience and practice.

A few lessons in Scratch at school or one ICT lesson every fortnight is in my view not enough if we want to nurture the next generation computer scientists. Likewise, one term of coding club is not enough to gain the digital skills that children need to navigate the digital world.

We also need parents fully engaged so they can help and encourage their boys and girls to take up coding. Being able to use a smart device or a play console is something that most children are used to doing (as ‘consumers’), but we need to teach them how smart devices and computers work.

Codingbug teaches children coding skills using Scratch, JavaScript and the Python programming language. We develop their logical and computational thinking and encourage them to collaborate. We encourage creativity and play and help connecting the missing dots.

We offer online coding clubs to help to deliver just that.

Making JavaScript accessible to children

Posted on February 12, 2021February 12, 2021 by Gicela

Over the last five weeks in one of our online coding clubs a group of Year 5 and 6 students have been making Apps using the JavaScript language.

Most of this particular group have been coding with Scratch for sometime and have a good understanding of basic computer programming principles. Most of them have also been learning online together since March 2020.

Learning to program in JavaScript is very different from making projects in Scratch. For a start, the children need to type in code and build an understanding of some of the issues that always come up when using text based programming – that is, bugs and how to debug.

The group have also learned about coordinates, variables and functions, and used the knowledge they have gained to make their own Apps and interact with them. I’m grateful to Bitsbox for creating a fantastic platform that provides fun characters and scenes for playing with.

It has been rewarding for me to witness how the children have understood the concepts quickly and applied them to their own projects.

There’s also little doubt that this group have developed their digital skills over many months of learning and collaborating together online. It’s great to see how comfortable they are using online chat and sharing their projects with their peers.

Well done to everyone that took part. Next term the children will be learning how to program the micro:bit.

Making Apps with App Lab

Posted on December 9, 2020December 9, 2020 by Gicela

Some of my Year 7, 8 and 9 students have just had their fifth and final session this term building Apps with App Lab. They learned how to prototype, design and develop an App using the JavaScript language.

Learning how to interact with the objects on the screen and use ‘event-driven’ programming to make their Apps come to life was really challenging, but the students rose to the challenge and created and shared some terrific Apps. They even created their own App icon to access them on their phones.

Well done to everyone who participated and I look forward to seeing you next term for our new Programming with Python course – registration is now open.