Last year our Code Club attempts with Python and IDLE were a bit frustrating. Well more frustrating than this year at least :). I noticed that a few things were a bit hard to read and didn’t show up properly, so I’ve fixed those.
So put this cheat sheet next to you while going through the Code Club Python activities. It relates to MacOSX, Windows, or Linux (we’ve used Raspberry Pis for our Dexter Industries BrickPi EV3, GoPiGo, and Minecraft Python sessions).
This post follows on from a previous post about keeping coding interesting with multiple skill levels. In this post, I’ll be expanding on the idea by talking about putting together new activities to run at your Code Club or insert-you-coding-maker-startup-equivalent-here.
Types of activities Although not every activity needs to be step-by-step, the expectations need to be clear. In the example of designing a game, the pre-requisites must be clear so that it’s possible to complete the activity comfortably, with enough challenges to keep it interesting.
Guided learning verses multiple stream choices In our own Code Club, we’ve taken a few different approaches:
picking out individual interesting projects from the Code Club curriculum each week; following the curriculum in order; providing a variety of activities that provide students with skills ranging from various forms of visual coding to 3d design for 3d printing; and providing short-term workshops that apply coding skills, in areas such as robotics and web applications.
