My day job is IT manager at a community centre. Within my remit is to organise clubs and events for local kids to do with IT.
One of the parents has approached me to ask if I know of any local clubs or events specifically aimed at coding, and I dont, but its not an impossibility to organise our own.
Out of curiosity, is a 'coding club' even a thing? Are there others on here using arduino as a base for organised education, or is it all about the pi these days? Ive got no kids of school age so I dont know how intensive the standard national curriculum is, within physics or IT disciplines.
As far as I can tell arduino is a reasonably good place to start, and if I can gather enough local interest its definitely an option, are there any others running or part of a coding club? What sort of format do they take? Etc.
Opinions welcome,
regards Neil
Well, I don't know an answer to your question, but I do think that there should be some sort of programming language taught across the board. The issue then becomes, what hardware and what language? I would say use pis as they are a small computer the kids can take home and practice with and then if you move on to arduinos they can program the arduinos with the pis.
Clearly, the Pi is an option, but adding a monitor and keyboard runs up the cost a bit. My guess is that most interested kids would already have a computer at home with a USB port which lower's the Pi's entry point to under $30; even lower if you go with the Zero. Still, after a free download and shelling out about $3 for a Nano, they're ready to start learning and programming in C. Also, it's Open Source architecture makes add-ons inexpensive, too. I think either platform would be viable.
Hi,
Look at "Maker Spaces" and "Make Magazine" etc. A community organization is a great place to enable people to learn about Microcomputers like Arduino and RaspberryPi.
Take a look at some how-to information that is online like THIS:
Maybe collaborate with your local library / librarian. Many libraries have started hosting "Maker Spaces".
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