1st Introduction to Coding Workshop at CoWS, Sunday May 18th 1pm – 5pm FREE!

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Who is this for?

Foremost we aim at beginners of all age and gender.
We encourage anyone with a curiosity about how computers and modern devices like smart-phones work to come along and explore the wonderful world of coding.

What you can expect:

  • a fun learning experience
  • beginner friendly
  • female friendly

The setup:

  • we use Clojure, a modern, functional programming language that is great for exploring the fundamentals of coding.
  • very hands-on: we explain a concept or coding idea, then you try it out
  • work in pairs: two minds, one keyboard and screen
  • initial session will be a half day / 4 hours
  • at CoWS in Bega
  • more sessions by popular demand
  • online support when you explore further on your own and have questions

Details:
Free event
Time: Sunday May 18th from 1pm till 5pm
Location: CoWS at 209 Carp St, Bega
Web: http://cowsnearthecoast.com.au/
Bring a laptop if you can, Windows, Mac and Linux are all fine (Java 6 or 7 is needed but we can help you set it up at the workshop)

Please sign up by sending an email to harry.binnendijk@gmail.com and tell us how many are in your party

Who we are:

Harry Binnendijk, Clojure developer

Liam O’Duibhir, Carsten Eckelmann, CoWS near the Coast

See you soon!

An evening of Scratch with the Sapphire Foundation

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Last Tuesday the CoWS was host to the first meeting of this year’s Sapphire Foundation students and parents. To celebrate the occasion and technology, Karl was invited to lead another workshop about programming in Scratch. It was a fun and successful evening and one of the students said afterwards: “I learned more about programming in these 2 hours than in one whole term of computing at school.”

The Sapphire Foundation recently had its kick-off meeting at the CoWS and Warwick Adams, the founder, had this to report:

We had the kick-off meeting for the steering committee of the Sapphire Foundation. This involved the parents of the 6 science scholarship students at Bega High and SapphireCoast Anglican College. The scholarship strategy focusses on the ‘non classroom’ elements of getting kids interested in and involved with STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) – extra-curricular activities, parental involvement and mentoring.

We discussed what the students had been doing so far – four of them went to science camps over the last school holidays (a CSIRO ‘Bootcamp’ and 3-day ‘Science Experience’ programs at Sydney and Macquarie Unis) and a couple families had also gone to a whole range of exhibitions and venues in Sydney.

Several of the kids are about to start CSIRO ‘CREST’ projects, where they choose their own topic and go away and research or build it. They can spend anywhere from 30 hours to 100 hours on the project, depending on what level they want to tackle it. One of the Year 9 students has also just won a place in the ‘Gifted and Talented Discovery Program’ which runs at Sydney Uni in July and October – the first time ever for a Bega Valley student.

Everyone is interested in the concept that you are developing – we feel that robotics, computing and UAV’s in particular would be a hit with 14 to 17 year-old kids – but we recognise the real issue of finding a group of volunteers with enough time to get it going properly.

The steering committee decided, as our next step, to get all the kids together at the end of April (along with the parents) to get to know each other and talk about stuff – we think there are some common interests that can be developed.

The committee meeting wrapped up (after 2.5 hours) and was very successful. The parents went away still chatting and very enthusiastic about the direction the scholarship program is taking.

Warwick Adams, Chair, The Sapphire Foundation 
www.sapphire-foundation.org  www.facebook.com/thesapphirefoundation