First Coding

First Coding will now be running two Retro Gaming coding workshops this month. They're being held at The Old Fire Station in Salt Lane, Salisbury and each one costs just £20 for the two hour session. The times of the workshops are below:
Saturday 11th August 2pm - 4pm Saturday 18th August 2pm - 4pm
... If your child is aged between 10 and 14 and would be interested in attending one of the workshops, then please drop me a line.
We'll be using Scratch, a visual programming language that is used in most schools. Scratch can be used in very clever ways (including designing this video for the workshops) and is a great gateway into learning to code.
See More

This week saw me host my very first children's party. The parents were looking to host a party with a difference and approached me to see what I could do to help. So this weekend we had eight young coders all working away on their own games to then go head to head to win prizes at the end. The prizes I gave away were copies of this rather fab Scratch coding book based on Star Wars, check it out here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075F LJ75N/ref=as_li_tl…
It was a great deal of fun for all, including myself who got to work with some great kids with some very creative ideas, all whilst being fed cake.

In today's sessions we were looking at how we could use the Microbit to measure water quality. One idea was to use the light sensor, shining a light through the water to then have its intensity measured. Another great idea was to measure the conductivity of the water, as impurities would influence the readings. Here we're just getting some base readings from ordinary tap water.
If your son or daughter would be interested in coding for the real world, programming sensors and lights to solve problems then why not check out our Advanced course. http://www.firstcoding.co.uk/the-advance- course/

If you think Scratch is just aimed at younger children to help them make simple games, think again. Apart from being a gateway into proper coding, Scratch can also be applied to many other interesting areas. Here is just one example, 3d modelling. I'm really tempted to keep pushing the boundaries with Scratch and make little adverts like this one for all my workshops.
If you're interested, the Retro Gaming workshop is being held on the 11th August. More details can be found on the website: http://www.firstcoding.co.uk/summer-holid ay-workshops

If you're a teacher, educator or parent looking to encourage the kids over the summer holidays, then why not consider the First Coding summer competition!
We all know screen time is a big issue during the summer holidays, so let’s make it a positive experience. For the month of August, First Coding will be running a competition to make a fun and creative game within Scratch.
For more information, please check out the website: http://www.firstcoding.co.uk/summer-holid ay-coding-competit…

I set a challenge recently to see if pupils could make a simple note sequencer whereby you load notes into a loop and the Scratch programme then cycles through the sequence, playing them one by one.
This is one of my favourite attempts. The variables at the top allow you to change the notes in the five note sequence. You can also amend the tempo up and down too. Really nice job.

I love pushing Scratch to the limit to see what it's capable of. In the Advanced course, pupils learn how to make a chatbot in Scratch, similar to that of Siri or Alexa and I wanted to share one of the projects my group are working on at the minute. I’ve posted this in a couple of Scratch teaching forums and the response has been great. I can’t wait to share the comments with my pupils.
There is a chatbot building workshop in the holidays if you have a son or daughter who would like to learn how to make their own: http://www.firstcoding.co.uk/summer-holid ay-workshops/

We've been making simple soundboards again this week with the young coders. I love the rain project from the last time we covered this topic, you can have a listen here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/20759354 6/
Soundboards are fun and easy to put together and a great way to get the younger pupils thinking about interactivity. Take a look inside at the blocks to see how you would add more sounds and backgrounds to this project.

The school talks I've been giving on electronic toy hacking highlighted a problem that motor control for the Raspberry Pi and Microbit could be made a great deal simpler (and cheaper) when you see what’s already out there. It only took two prototypes of my pack before I was happy. Each pack contains example code, components and creativity.
I've been gifting them to audience members who would like to try controlling their own motors and lights through coding.
Don't forget, the Advanced course covers all things Microbit, what would you make? http://www.firstcoding.co.uk/the-advance- course/

I love hearing about the journeys pupils’ projects have taken them on, so I thought I would share one of my own. At the end of last year I put together a little code machine in Scratch (you can see it here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/18586614 5 ), it used a simple Caesar cipher to allow you to send secret messages. This got me into reading a great many books on codes and it wasn’t long before I wanted to create an unbreakable code of my own.
I also met a few people along... the way, including someone at the Secret Army Museum who discussed with me methods to check whether a coded transmission had been tampered with. All really interesting.
I have now packaged up what I’ve learnt and built an app titled The Code Machine, soon to be available for free so all can enjoy.
See More

It's been a busy Saturday running classes here at The Old Fire Station. Here the young coders learnt how random numbers can be used to generate different patterns. I projected their work on the wall to allow the 7 and 8 year olds explain their projects to their parents.

The first of the summer holiday workshops have now been confirmed. If your son or daughter would like a challenge over the summer, or would like a taster of the things we do with our creative coding courses then why not come along to one of our fun workshops and make some awesome projects this summer.

See if you can spot the First Coding arcade cabinet in this summer's issue of Raring2Go.

Have you met the First Coding assistant? This week sees the start of two chatbot building courses, one at a school and one held at The Old Fire Station. I brought the box along to introduce herself and say hello.
If you're interested in building your own chatbot in Scratch then check out the Advanced course: http://www.firstcoding.co.uk/the-advance- course

For those who don't yet know, you can now hire BBC Micro:bits from the libraries in and around Salisbury. I think this is a great idea as regular followers will know that I love these little programmable computers. However, learning the basics with these can be tricky at times (though afterwards you'll be flying, trust me), so if your son or daughter requires a little help to get them started with Micro:bit programming then please drop First Coding a line.

Our half term classes are now fully booked but there's no need to worry, First Coding will continue to run after-school and weekend classes for the remainder of the school year.

A pupil, bored with being tasked with watering his grandma's plants whilst she's on holiday, used his Microbit lessons to build an automatic plant watering system. The water pump is activated during high sunlight levels as well as the temperature reaching a certain threshold. Such a great example of coding for the real world. Well done.

I thought it would be a good idea to share some of our pupil's Scratch projects. Here we have a nice variation on our maze game tutorial. https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/22294737 1/