Event

Coder Dojo Hints and Tips

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Introduction

Following on from out last Coder Dojo we have been reviewing the feedback, it appears everyone had a great time, but most comments were around the available learning resources.  This post will aim to give some guidance on what is available in hard copy form at the Makerspace, where various online resources can be found and how they can be best used at future Coder Dojo’s at Ipswich Makerspace

Coder Dojo Resources

Hard Copy

The Coder Dojo organisation have a large number of resources available online, Until recently their resources were generally community derived and came in the form of two page PDF’s which could be printed out double sided and laminated ready to be used at Coder Dojo’s.  These were (still currently) stored at https://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki/Home_Page. These bite size sheets were called Sushi cards.

Online

The Coder Dojo organisation now comes under the umbrella of the Raspberry Pi Foundation (RPF), so along with Code Club (also owned by RPF) and Raspberry Jams there are massive amounts of learning material in various forms and formats.  The Raspberry Pi Foundation have been working for some time to bring all these resources together on their Projects site, this is work in progress but well progressed now.  This site has pulled together in a consistent format, learning resources from Coder Dojo, Code Club, Raspberry Pi.  This is brilliant work and needs commending, however the resources are formatted for online web viewing and whilst they can be printed this is not ideal since they do not make best use of the paper and quite often use ten or more sheets of paper, in addition, some interactive elements will be missing.

Recommendations for Dojo Attendees

Whilst the Makerspace would love to provide a library of hard copy learning resource, this takes time to prepare and may not cover the content your are interested in. Also with the migration of many of the available materials a to web based format, printing this out is becoming increasingly difficult.

Therefore if possible we feel it would be advantageous and more productive for Dojo attendees to bring a laptop or tablet completer with them, to allow the viewing of online resources whilst working on their projects.

If this is not possible, please do not let this put you off from attending, we will find a method of allowing you to view the online resources or find some suitable hard copy resource for you to use.

Makerspace library

At time of writing (September 2018) we have the following hard copy resources available for use at our Coder Dojo’s.

  • Scratch Sushi Cards  x 5
  • HTML/CSS Sushi Cards x 5
  • MicroBit (MakeCode) Sushi Cards x 5
  • MicroBit (Python) Sushi Cards x 5
  • Scratch (MagPi) book (RPF) x 1
  • GPIO Zero (MagPi)  book x 1
  • Minecraft  (MagPi)  book  x 1
  • Raspberry Pi Sushi cards x 3

These are held at the Makerspace and will be available for any of our Coder Dojo attendees whilst at the space.  All of these resources are available as a free download from the Raspberry Pi website, so if you want to continue to work on your project away from the Makerspace this should not be a problem.

Coding on laptops

Whilst the Ipswich Makerspace make heavy use of Raspberry Pi’s, it is not necessary to code on one, although the Operating System and included software make them very compelling.

It is also possible to code on a laptop, Python and Scratch are both available as downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux computers, many of the resources listed above can also be used directly on a laptop.  If you really want to you can even download and install the Raspbian Operating System onto a USB stick so you can run Raspbian on your laptop, if this is something you would like to do, was can talk you through the process.

We want to enable young people to learn to code, we don’t want to impose any restrictions so if you would rather use a laptop than a Raspberry Pi this is fine, however we are unable to provide laptops for use at our Coder Dojo sessions so you will have to provide your own.  If you need help installing any software we will be happy to provide guidance.

Useful Links

If you have any questions about the Coder Dojo sessions at Ipswich Makerspace, please make contact via the email address provided on our Dojo page

 

Successful Dojo

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Today we held out first Coder Dojo, we had nine Ninjas (kids) sign up and eight showed up, so a great start. We had themed our first Dojo on the Raspberry Pi, so before every one arrived we setup a Raspberry Pi for each Ninja. Once settled in and after a quick ice breaker we discovered we had a number of skill levels present. Some had never used a Raspberry Pi before, whilst others had used them quite a lot.

The Ninjas all chose something to work on, we had people who had bought their own project to work on, these included robots, breadboard hardware projects, Minecraft projects etc. Whilst others decided to learn how to wire up and programme LED’s as traffic lights, code an adventure game in Python or programme games in Scratch.

All in all, everyone had a great time and it was a shame to have to tell everyone to pack up once the time came to finish up.

I would very much like to thank my co-champions Tim and Sue and also Phil and Andy who did a great mentoring job on the day.

So will there be another Coder Dojo, I’m pretty sure there will be, today was the second Sunday of the month, so it will be nice to run one every second Sunday of the month. I’m currently confirming details with the rest of the team but hope to post details of future Dojos very soon.

Coder Dojo – 9th September

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Coder Dojo logo

We are hosting a Coder Dojo on Sunday 9th September.  This is a place for 7 to 17 year old children to learn to code.  Our first session will be based loosely on the Raspberry Pi.  We will be providing everything you need, however you may want to bring the following if you wish.

  • Your own Raspberry Pi, we will have ones to use, but they are small, so if you prefer your own, then bring it.
  • Your Raspberry Pi SD card, again, we will be providing SD cards for you to use, but if you have a project you want to work on, then by all means, bring your own.
  • If you want to do any Sonic Pi work, then please bring headphones, with a 3.5mm jack plug.

Coder Dojo’s are largely self taught sessions with mentors to help, so if you have an idea what what you want to learn or improve then bring along your ideas and let us know.  You will not be taught something you don’t want to do.  If you are new to coding or Raspberry Pi’s then we will have a selection of resources to get you going.

If you want to attend, it is essential you sign up on the Coder Dojo website.  This event is free to attend, but we do need you to sign up here.  Thank you.

For location details please refer to the Ipswich Makerspace event page here.

Coder Dojo logo

October Gets Talky, Tech Talky

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Coming up in October we have not one but two Tech Talks to take your minds off the gathering gloom.

casting of cthulhuFirst up we have David Kirkby (Thurs 5th Oct), a talented local sculptor and maker who will be explaining the ins and outs of mould making and cold resin casting. Imagine being able to reproduce your favourite thing in glorious but lightweight bronze.

3.Test RigFor fans of animation we have Alan Clark and Doug Selway (Thur 19th Oct) who will be showing us their cunning video camera rig which allows programmable, repeatable camera control for stop motion animation. The team designed, built, programmed and fettled the rig themselves and you can see the results on YouTube.

If you want to come along, both events are completely free of charge and you can have a tour of the makerspace and a chat afterwards. Of course we’re also open on our regular Tuesday and Thursday evening slots.

Keep up to date with all things Makerspace on here or on our Facebook group.

Venue Stakeout

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dove-street-studio
This week we shall be checking out a new venue. It is a first floor studio in Dove Street. More information is available on the event page

Parking is available in the nearby Suffolk New College, free after 6pm.

Look forward to seeing you there.

New Venue

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The last meeting was held at a trial venue, 83 Grimwade Street. It tuned out it is actually rather nice and has lots of potential, including the ability to have permanent storage and eventually equipment.

So all future meetings will be held here.

The internet is being installed Friday apparently, so as long as it all goes well we should also have online access. If anyone has a spare large flat screen TV they no longer want, it would be most welcome so we can get the retro games room on its way.

Look forward to seeing you all there next week on 25th February.

Waldringfield Demonstration Evening

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On Thursday 5th November Ipswich Makerspace hosted a demonstration evening at Waldringfield VIllage Hall as part of their Winter Talks. The event was enabled by Waldringfield resident and Makerspace member Tim, apart from the Raspberry Jam earlier in the year this was the first real event to be put on entirely by Ipswich Makerspace.

A call was put out to members to talk, run demonstrations and just generally be around to help field questions. We had a very good turnout with the show piece being a display from Simon, more on this later.

Photo-2015-11-05-19-37-19_3053The event was opened with a talk both by Tim and then our Leader Steve, who had so much knowledge to impart his talk was cut down by about 80% by Tim just minutes before the speech, to allow time for the residents to actually see our wares. The talking went well and eager to learn more the residents streamed into the main hall and the Makerspace members did their work.

We had

  • Phil and Jon with quad-copters
  • Jon also brought along his 3D printer and Neopixel display with Snake running complete with home made score and leader board.
  • Phil bought along a couple of robots, a 3D printed one and the TractorBot 2015 prototype as well as a 3D printer and a PiTop laptop running last years Ipswich Makerspace PiWars video
  • Keith Ellis brought along last years PiWars champion TractorBot and also this years prototype Tractorbot 2015, both of which made their way out to the live arena for the kids to play with.

  • The real crowd puller though was Simon with his mind controlled racing cars

    • Plenty of other members were also present including Vince, Dan, Frank, Gary, Ben and I’m sure there are others I’ve missed. So thank you all for really making this event what it was, it was you who made it so successful and engaging.

    The event was very busy and the residents certainly seemed very interested.