Starting a Code Club!

As discussed earlier, I'm expecting to be starting a new Code Club in September, at a secondary rather than primary school. This will be more challenging, I hope and expect, because of the age range and increasing teenager-ness. 

Budget?

The staff member leader says she has a small budget for this, but had thought of using Lego-based programmable stuff to provide a bridge from their possible learned experience for Year 7 students. I investigated this, and even the cheapest Lego automation kits for schools (no longer Mindstorms, but Lego Education SPIKE) run at £200-300 to support just two students. So that doesn't seem sensible. 

Meanwhile, over at Science Oxford, where I've been volunteering recently, the leader there has a huge wealth of good experience with stuff purchased from AliExpress etc., as raw materials or boards that are relatively easily, and experientially usefully, assembled into robots or other automated/controlled entities, for far less money. Excellent. 

It's worth looking at the Science Oxford GitHub repository for lots of projects that Sarah has run over the years. Of course, not all of these folders provide the recipes for components etc., but they're good for starting points. 

I certainly think it's worth looking at setting up a store of various controllable objects, like motors, servo motors, LEDs both raw and NeoPixel-like, and their associated control boards for microbits. Bought in bulk from AliExpress, they are pretty cheap. 

Topics?

I was thinking it would be best to start simple, by surveying the assembled multitude for their existing knowledge and possible ideas/enthusiasms, whilst giving them a starter project initially, probably on laptops only, or with microbits on their own, no added materiél. Get the right atmosphere, one of exploration and non-judgemental experiments, and they should flourish. Ideally, there would be multiple individual or small group projects running over a period, so that students are pursuing their interests with the enthusiasm that brings, rather than me excessively imposing my ideas. It would also allow for everyone to learn from everyone, as there would be examples of problems solved for all to see.

The Code Club website has bazillions of projects and learning paths, I've no doubt I'll be drawing on those. Letting kids find their own way so they can proceed at their pace, and get a blast from explaining to you what they're doing and why, whilst knowing that they can get help and explanations is a good result.

Let's see how it goes.