Codeathon for school students
I had been thinking for a while on conducting a codeathon for school students. Wouldn't it be great to build something from scratch in a shorter span of time? What if they could build games, websites, apps or anything that they wanted to build? Giving them an opportunity to build something would instill confidence and inspire them. We decided to conduct a codeathon on May 19, 2018 during the summer holidays.
We wanted software developers as volunteers who can coach and mentor these kids .When I reached out to Ashish Cherian, Krithika and Karan with this idea, they were excited for the event and promised their support. Our mentors and our 25 young programmers made the day beyond memorable. The codeathon started at 10:00 AM and we started with the brainstorming session. We started listing out ideas - game with Sratch, App with App inventor, simple arcade game with Python and so on. They were super excited and it was very hard for them to decide and stick to one project. However after nearly twenty minutes they were ready with their teams and project idea that they had chosen to work on.
In all we had 15 teams. The following are the list of projects that these teams had worked on -
- 1. Android app to learn Public speaking skills in MIT App Inventor
- 2. Website development and hosting using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Github hosting
- 3. Program to find out if a number is prime or not using Python
- 4. Quiz app in MIT App Inventor
- 5. Portfolio website development and hosting using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Github hosting
- 6. Snake game in JavaScript
- 7. Catch and throw game in Scratch
- 8. Dart shooting game in Scratch
- 9. Quiz webapp using HTML and Java Script
- 10. Falling apples game in Scratch
- 11. Pong game using Python and Tkinter
- 12. Calculator game using Python and Tkinter
- 13. Calculator game using Python and Tkinter
- 14. A voice bot using Python and Google APIs
- 15. Rock, paper and Scissors game using Python
They were all on a mission - to build something awesome with technology. They were so engrossed into coding and testing. We could see Ashish running around like a superman helping the kids with their doubts/errors and questions. He and the other mentors were so supportive and helpful that the kids never lost interest and they stayed motivated and inspired. By around 3 PM, they were all ready with their projects and it was Presentation time.
It was the most fun and exciting part of the event. The teams came , presented their ideas and explained their project. They were really proud of what they had built in a day. It was inspiring to see how these group of kids in the age group 7 - 14 years came together to build something with technology. They proved that with the right platform, tools and mentors they can build something and create a difference.