CodeDojo Ealing – Sep 2018

CodeDojo Ealing – Sep 2018

First CoderDojo Ealing at University of West London! (UWL)

Saturday, September 30th Was the first Ealing CoderDojo. It was organised by Llewelyn and held at

the University of West London. The university had a nice feel to it and was quite roomy inside, with tonnes of little hang out areas.

The event was really well organised, with loads of volunteers and student ambassadors to support the attendees (the two ladies at the main reception were really friendly).

There were 6 workshops to join:

 Robot arm workshop: This workshop gave the attendees a chance to programme a robot arm to do several different movements.  They looked like mini versions of the robots you’d probably see being used in a car plant. The students had the opportunity to learn to control the movements of a robot arm using Python from a Raspberry Pi computer. Then challenge themselves to write code to move objects around on the table.

Wheeled robot workshop: The robots had to be programmed with Python using the Raspberry Pi.  They were really cool! They were handmade and each one looked totally different. The wheel sizes & motor speeds varied, and so did the way they moved.  The students learnt Python programming the fun way! They used basic programming to code a remote-controlled robot. They competed against other students in the robot obstacle course. There was an arena on the floor in which they could be left to roam around.

There was a Scratch workshop as well. The activity was to make your first computer program in Scratch; choose your favourite Scratch characters and use blocks of code to control their behaviour. Then use the keyboard and mouse to interact with the characters.

There was also a Microbit Programming workshop. In this session, the students explored the BBC Micro: bit. They started off with a simple hello world and created some fun projects.

I ran my coded creature (Tiny Tech) Micro: bit workshop.  The two boys & two girls that joined had to first assemble & wire up their Tiny Tech creature.  They had to handle several different components including servos, LEDs & piezo buzzers. Once assembled, they coded the components using JavaScript Blocks. The servos made the head & tail move; the LEDs lit up the eyes & piezo buzzer played a tune.  

In a separate room dedicated for the Saturday Club kids, there was a HTML activity going on. I didn’t get time to check it out, but I will next time!

It was a well organised, friendly & fun first Ealing Coder Dojo!