Blog Archives - Page 2 of 10 - First Coding

Launchpad 4 Life

Jul 2, 2019adminBlog, EventsCoaching, Launchpad, Workshops

First Coding is very pleased to announce that we’ll be providing creative coding workshops as part of Launchpad 4 Life‘s summer activities. Launchpad’s mission is to provide school leavers and young adults with essential support to develop personal qualities, skills and confidence in preparation for their next steps in life.

Amazing Competitions

Jun 25, 2019adminBlog, Events, ScratchCompetition, Scratch

We’re running our competitions again! If you’re in one of the schools that hosts a First Coding computer club, be on the look out for our competition. Over the next couple of weeks pupils will have to code a maze solving (virtual) robot with the fastest times winning some fab prizes.

Free to enter and open to all pupils whether they’ve previously taken part in the clubs or not.

Challenges

Jun 23, 2019adminBlog, EventsChallenges, Competition, Events, Stickers

As the school year comes to an end, I’ve noticed that the number of coding challenges starts to increase. I had the pleasure of submitting a project from one of our pupils to the Wild Card challenge of an event this month. This category is for basically any project that failed to meet the requirements of the other sections and to be honest, it has to be one of my favourite categories as creativity comes in many forms. The student’s entry was a ray caster generating a 3d world that the user navigates through the lens of a robot. I absolutely love the attention to detail, especially the robot’s blinking as it automatically explores its surroundings and the project was completely designed in Scratch!

One of the things I wanted to do this year was to attend more educational and coding events in an attempt to meet new people, learn about the latest ideas in these fields and to (hopefully) get on board with a number of projects that First Coding can assist with. More news will follow soon.

One craze I have noticed at these events is the increasing popularity of the laptop sticker. Whenever I chat with anyone I always end up coming away with a handful of stickers. I’m not complaining as both my demo laptops are decorated with the finest of decorative stickerage but I do have a huge collection of leftovers. If anybody would like a random selection sent to them, then please just drop First Coding a line at hello@firstcoding.co.uk.

Business of the Year Awards

Jun 19, 2019adminBlog, EventsAwards

Can you all keep you fingers crossed for tomorrow please as it’s the South Wilts Business of the Year and First Coding is up for an award.

Python Workshops

Jun 18, 2019adminBlog, PythonPython Workshops

As the summer holidays fast approach, First Coding is busy organising the workshops that will be held over the summer break. Whilst the dates are being finalised you can sample some of the projects that came out of last year’s Python workshops. Just click on the link: https://python.firstcoding.repl.run

First Coding Gets Interviewed For TV

Jun 1, 2019adminBlog, EventsTelevision

First Coding was featured on this week’s local news. It’s all rather exciting and nice to talk about First Coding and how it all started. Also the tour guide app for Salisbury is getting its own feature next week too!

We’re in the News!

May 4, 2019adminApp Design, BlogApp Design, App Development, Newspaper, WhereFirst?

I am always looking for ways to encourage children and teens when is comes to applying what they learn in our courses. Hopefully this article and my app that features in it will show just how far a good idea can go. The WhereFirst? app was all built using techniques taught in First Coding’s courses.

The Intermediate Python Course

Apr 30, 2019adminBlog, Events, PythonCourses, Python

Tomorrow sees the launch of the intermediate Python course at Bishop Wordsworth’s School. This is aimed at pupils who participated in the previous introductory courses and would like to develop their coding skills further. I’m very much looking forward to seeing a few familiar faces again as we get stuck into a couple challenging but creative coding projects.

Barcode Battles

Apr 19, 2019adminApp Design, BlogApp, Kindle Fire

First Coding can help breathe new life into an old laptop or tablet. This week we’ve been developing apps for Kindle Fires using block-based coding. The game is a really clever idea, scanning barcodes on packets to work out your opponents statistics, rather like Top Trumps. A perfect way to brighten up any trip to the supermarket with your parents!

Library Coding Club

Apr 14, 2019adminBlog, Events, ScratchCoding Club, Library

The third session of the monthly coding club at Salisbury library took place yesterday and it proved a great deal of fun. First Coding taught the children how to make their own games and hopefully left them with ideas and an interest to keep coding throughout the rest of the Easter holidays. It was nice to involve some of the parents too.

2