#30DaysOfCodeClub

Welcome to 30 days of Code Club. The objective is to get students coding, in any format they choose, for 30 consecutive days. I believe it could be the start to a genuine interest in coding thereon.

How it works:

  • No pre-requirements. No entry fees. Registration below.
  • Start date: 20 July 2020
  • End date: 25 September 2020 (30 days in that time period of term 3)
  • Use resources if you need, provided here or any place else (books/web)
  • Design- Code- Display, your work via screenshots everyday (if possible)
  • Use – Create – Modify Code (Incase you find existing code, you need to create and modify it enough and not just republish it as is)
  • Can be Block based or Text based languages
  • Do a little bit everyday (if possible)
  • Use the hashtag #30DaysOfCodeClub when posting your daily work OR keep a blog on Google docs, Microsoft Word or similar
  • Make a 30 second video at the end of 30 days to present what you have been doing and post with the hashtag above. Video can be uploaded to YouTube/Vimeo with that hashtag or email me the link.

Registration:

Resources:

This website has a wide range of options for the starting coder. They include a whole bunch of examples in each of the following: HTML/CSS, Scratch, Python. They also include physical computing projects using the Raspberry Pi-a credit card sized computer should you be interested.

This is where you get started in Scratch with tutorials. Make sure you create an account first as you want to be saving your progress.

This website is a very good resource for Python as well as HTML/CSS and most of the commonly used languages. It has an online editor for you to try out code. Follow a video tutorial should you struggle to install python on your computer. Installing python is easy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-MuSAwgwCU

This is a very good block based software to create Android apps online. You do not need any complex software, just an Android phone should you choose not to use the on board emulator (replicates a phone layout on your computer). Highly recommended.

A very cool web based game development platform which uses block based coding to make events. If you are interested in making games, head over here and get started. You might be making games within 5 minutes!

Microbit is a pocket sized computer armed with a whole bunch of sensors. You can program the microbit using just the emulator or get one yourself for under $30(NZD). Provided with a large list of projects, this should keep you busy for over 30 days.

There are plenty of other options including the ever popular Arduino, VEX and LEGO kits should you choose physical computing to learn coding. If you have any clarifications please feel free to email me at pravin.vaz@vuw.ac.nz

Prizes:

Most consistent coder: There are 3 prizes for each category in Year 1-Year 8 and Year 9 – 13. Each prize is a $50 prize voucher. Shows consistent learning and comes up with a cool piece of code/ game/ project at the end of 30 days.

Creative Coder: Aspects of code/ program/ game/ project which show a significant level of Creativity / innovation, since starting the project. One prize for each Year 1- Year 8 and Year 9 – 13. $50 gift Voucher.

Try Python out!

Try Scratch Out!

Judging Panel:

Stuart Marshall

Head of School, Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington.

Areas of interest

  • information visualisation
  • natural user interfaces (specifically touch-interfaces, gesture-interfaces and Kinect /Move-style interfaces)

I am a member of the human-computer interaction research group, and I am currently supervising a range of thesis and honours students.

Jennifer Ferreira

Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington.

Areas of interest

Digital money, Agile software development, User experience design, Human-computer interaction, Software analytics

Marcus Frean

Associate Professor, School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington.

Areas of interest

I am interested in building intelligent systems, using machine learning. Firstly, there is the challenge of trying to make computers capable of learning about the world first hand from their own data, instead of being told what to do by direct instructions from humans. And secondly, there is the continuing mystery of how real brains achieve the same thing, with fantastic success, despite being made of fallible, slow processing elements. So a longer term goal of my work is to shed light on how the brain comes to represent and predict the world, and how it uses this knowledge to generate sensible actions. Within machine learning, my current interests are inference and optimisation in neural nets, belief nets, and Gaussian processes.