The Coding Space Blog

The Coding Space Share Week: Building Resilience Through Celebration

7/27/2021

At The Coding Space, every semester ends with a special event—Share Week! During Share Week, students showcase their hard work from the semester by testing each other’s projects, seeing each other’s progress, and celebrating their accomplishments.

By encouraging students to feel pride in what they’ve learned, what they’ve made, and what skills they’ve acquired, Share Week reinforces the essential lesson that learning is its own reward. Building grit is a key part of our pedagogy at The Coding Space, and nothing reinforces grit more than learning to take authentic pride in your efforts—regardless of external accolades. While awards, certificates, and praise can be great ways to encourage students, it’s even better to teach students to celebrate the internal reward of hard work itself.

No matter the platform or skill level, each project is as unique as the student who created it. See below for a few of the many examples of creativity and passion.

Wednesday Advanced: Tomato Squasher
Goal: Move the tomato cannon left and right with arrow keys and shoot down as many watermelons as you can in 30 seconds.

Friday Young Beginner: Animal Art
Goal: Use your mouse to draw with various animals and press different keys for cool effects

Monday Beginner GirlCode: Animal Piano
Goal: Click each dinosaur to make them play a custom beat

Can you tell we love celebrating our student’s accomplishments? Join one of our upcoming coding classes to start creating today!

A Sneak Peek at My Coding Space

7/27/2021

Last summer, The Coding Space built a learning management system to capture our students’ progress in our classes. While it tracks achievement, the purpose of My Coding Space isn’t to reinforce some false idea of linear progress; in our classes, each student embarks on an individual journey that has peaks and valleys and unfailingly unique rhythms. My Coding Space is designed to provide a full picture of where students are in those journeys so that we as teachers know where to guide them next and they, in turn, develop an appreciation for how far they’ve come.

Challenging, but Supported
My Coding Space is designed to challenge students to build their problem solving skills. The system contains a comprehensive library of Challenge Projects for students to choose from. We call these projects “Untutorials” because, while they help students break down complex projects into smaller steps, they don’t tell students exactly what to do.. Students must experiment, problem solve, and tinker as they devise their own solutions (and if they get stuck, our teachers are always there to provide guidance and help).

Independent, but Collaborative
When a student completes a step in an Untutorial, that step then becomes visible to our teachers, who can review the student’s work, approve the step, or send it back with feedback. The best part? Students don’t have to wait for feedback if they’re eager to keep working—they can simply move on while our teachers review! Once a student completes all steps of an Untutorial, they have the option to share their work to our community page so that other students can see what they’ve made.

Individualized, but Guided
Each student has a profile page in My Coding Space that displays their progress on each project, the scope of which might include Intro to Coding, Intro to Scratch, Scratch, WoofJS, and Web. As students complete projects, their profile provides helpful visuals of their progress through our curriculum, so we as teachers can best recommend next steps, communicate their achievements with parents, and allow them to pick up where they left off at the start of each semester with ease.

We’re thrilled to offer this added value to our classes and to continue expanding our program’s sophistication, breadth, and accessibility. Come back to our blog at the end of the summer to see what we’ve developed!

The Coding Space Cup: Where Legends Are Made

6/2/2021

Summer is almost here, which means we have our sleeves rolled up planning out another amazing camp season packed with activities and fun. It also means that something quite monumental is about to take place:

It's time for….

The Coding Space Cup!

Not sure what we’re talking about? Let’s do a thought experiment.

Imagine the greatest computer scientists in history: Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, Barbara Liskov, John von Neumann. Then imagine a league of teams named after these computational maestros, each competing for glory in an elaborate system of points, power, puzzles, and prizes. Now imagine the teams are made up of our intrepid young campers faced with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve Coding Space Cup glory. To do so, they’ll need to write programs, solve problems, crack codes, win races, and overcome the toughest of mental challenges. If they do all of that, they might just have what it takes to honor their team name and cross the proverbial finish line with the final baton. Every Friday from June to August, the fate of our campers, computer science heroes, and humanity at large will rest on one question: Who has won The Coding Space Cup?

Now that we’ve let our imaginations run wild, we’ll come back down to earth and remember that The Coding Space Cup isn’t that serious. While not a tangible trophy, the title of Coding Space Cup winner is indeed real! Our campers (and counselors) had such a blast last year at our inaugural cup that we couldn’t wait to continue the tradition this year.

The rules are simple: Campers will be placed onto teams honoring the computer science greats. TCS Cup points will then be awarded to team members all week long in a plethora of categories. The team that accumulates the most points wins the cup! With so many chances to win points, campers will be inspired to apply themselves, test their limits, and collaborate for the betterment of their team.

Point earning opportunities include (but are not limited to): participating in warm-up activities like bringing their favorite book or showing a cool hidden talent; crushing physical activities like kickboxing or yoga; winning a scavenger hunt, juggling competition, or virtual relay race; posing as the most realistic movie scene or dominating a Shark Tank pitch; finishing a coding project that addresses a sustainable development goal or the weekly camp theme; and so much more! And that’s just the half of it. Campers will also have the chance to win discretionary points for being exceptionally awesome. Did they work through a frustrating moment and keep going? Did they help another camper? Were they extra focused, funny, or kind? Those are all point-worthy feats!

At the end of each week, we’ll celebrate the winners of The Coding Space Cup, and more importantly, the amazing achievements of every single one of our campers. Every year, we are blown away by how quickly and deeply our campers learn, how fun, funny, and kind they are, and oh how creative and smart. The purpose of The Coding Space Cup is not to choose a winner (although there will be one!) but to celebrate all of our campers’ accomplishments and inspire them to reach for the stars.

We can’t wait to see our campers in action this summer. Check out our camp options here. Three cheers for The Coding Space Cup and all our campers!

Announcing the Code 4 Change: Build a Better World Winners!

5/12/2021

This past weekend marked the end of our third Code 4 Change challenge: Build a Better World. This event asked our coders to use their skills and creativity to imagine unique tech-based solutions to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. After a month of hard work, participants submitted their projects for judging and friends and family explored the projects and voted for their favorites. Finally, coders joined us online for a special live finale event where we revealed the winners and celebrated everyone’s hard work.

Here are the winning projects in all nine categories:

Best Visual Design

India, age 12
"Code 4 Change Charity Quiz"

About the Project: “This is a quiz to determine which charity to donate to based on how you answer the questions.”

From the Judges: India's cleanly designed quiz helps you to find the best charities for helping with the causes you care about most. We were impressed by how clean the design of the project was overall, as well as her use of the UN Sustainable Goal icons. Making a project in Scratch that looks this good isn't easy, and India clearly didn't cut any corners!

Best Sound Design

Chase, age 9
“Climate Action - Save the Bears”

About the Project: “Climate Action as it affects bears and our planet.”

From the Judges: Chase's wholesome project about protecting wildlife from pollution is bursting with character. His voice recordings give the project a sense of urgency and humor which help to communicate his important message. The project also ends with a wonderful song composed entirely in Scratch - impressive!

Best Game Design

Ishmael, age 16
“Save The Trees!”

About the Project: “Climate change has created many problems on this planet and is responsible for natural disasters such as wildfires. In the ‘Save The Trees’ project, the goal is to save the trees by successfully putting out the raging flames with water. The player controls an aircraft that shoots water towards the flames below when the space bar is held. These flames produce a smoke that spawn at random between the different trees.”

From the Judges: Ishmael's project is about climate action - a game where you have to put out a forest fire! The game is unique and clever, demonstrating through its gameplay the perils of fighting forest fires. It's not easy - can you pilot the firefighting plane and douse the flames before the smoke ends your flight?

Most Educational

Alex, age 10; Veronica, age 11; Lily, age 9; and Claire, age 9
“C4C Peeps Group Project”

From the Judges: The C4C Peeps made a truly comprehensive group project - each of the students in the group made their own project about a different issue, and then they combined those projects into a central guide which helps you pick the project you'd like to try. This collaborative effort is truly packed with educational details on a variety of important issues.

Most Imaginative

Annabelle, age 12
“Stop-Deforestation”

About the Project: “This project ‘Stop-Deforestation’ is a game where you move the seed to plant the tree using the arrow keys into the patch of dirt and watch the tree grow. This game will also explain a few facts about deforestation and encourage you to plant your own tree.”

From the Judges: Annabelle's beautiful project imagines the player as the seed of a tree, showing the gradual process of growth. Her charming art really helps emphasize the important environmentalist message of her project, while creating a serene vibe which is truly unique.

Best Scratch

Manya, age 11
“Global Issues Game”

About the Project: “My project is focused on Good Health. There are many games that you can play since my project is a 4-in-one. ”

From the Judges: Manya's Global Issues Game is truly impressive - cramming a game about recycling, a puzzle about health, a quiz on environmental facts, and more all into one truly ambitious project! Clearly a lot of hard work and care went into building this fun and educational experience.

Best WoofJS/Web

Mira, age 11
“Food Banks and Where to Find Them”

About the Project: “I made a website with information about food banks, as well as a zip code based Google Maps iframe.”

From the Judges: Mira's project is a practical resource about how to support food banks in New York City - her site pairs important statistics about food insecurity with helpful information about how to best help. It also features an interactive map which allows you to search for food banks near where you live - so helpful!

Coders' Choice

Aniroodh, age 9
“Food Catcher”

About the Project: “‘Food Catcher’ is a game with a message. Your participation could help erase hunger. This game is about collecting food items before the time runs out.”

From the Judges: Aniroodh's project is an exciting game about collecting food to prevent hunger. You have a limited time to catch the variety of food items in your bowl - very fun, and the page shown at the end of the project when the game is done does a great job of reinforcing the positive message of the project.

In the spirit of Code 4 Change, each winner received a $50 donation to one of the following philanthropic organizations:

If you missed the finale, you can still check out the recording here and the full list of winners below. To explore all the projects submitted, click here.

Please join us in giving all our participants a big round of applause for their hard work and creativity! We’ll see you next time.

Don't Miss the Code 4 Change: Build a Better World Finale!

5/11/2021

Three cheers for our creative coders! Our C4C: Build a Better World participants have completed and submitted their programming projects, the votes have been cast, and the results have been tallied. Now, it's time to tune in for the finale event where we reveal the winners in these categories:

Best Visual Design
Best Sound Design
Best Game Design
Most Informative
Most Imaginative
Best Scratch
Best WoofJS
Best Web
Coders' Choice

Oh, and did we mention there will be prizes? Each category winner will receive a donation of $50 to support a philanthropic organization embodying the spirit of Code 4 Change. Winners are invited to choose from these organizations:

All projects will be featured on the TCS website and winning projects will be showcased in a special blog.

Watch the finale! The finale will be streamed live across several platforms on Sunday, May 16th starting at 3pm EST. You can watch by clicking on the links below:

We hope you’ll join us in acknowledging and celebrating the hard work of all our students and their creativity in devising solutions to problems facing kids just like them. Their generosity of spirit sets an excellent example for us all!

Celebrating Scratch During #ScratchWeek

5/3/2021

May 17-23 is Scratch Week, and we at The Coding Space can’t wait to celebrate! The weeklong virtual event promises tons of activities and surprises for the millions of avid Scratchers out there. In case you’re not familiar, Scratch is a block-based programming language designed for children and used by people of all ages in over 150 countries.

In Scratch, beginner programmers and coding experts alike can create stories, animations, and games and in doing so, use code as a means of creative expression, idea generation, and exploration.

Scratch was created in 2003 by the MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten group as a new way to teach kids how to code. As the project was adapted and shared with students, it became clear that Scratch’s impact was even bigger than that. In a November 2012 TED Talk, Mitch Resnick who led the development of Scratch puts it this way: “As kids are creating projects, they’re learning to code; even more importantly, they’re coding to learn.”

A wonderful example of this is one shared by Resnick. One of his students wanted to add a scoreboard to his game. Resnick showed him how by using the “Make a Variable” block to store and manipulate a number, and the grateful young coder thanked him over and over again in utter excitement to apply this new concept. The question Resnick drew from this scenario is this: How often are teachers thanked by their students for teaching them variables?

Rather than struggling in math class without knowing how or why a variable might be applied, this child was motivated to learn and understand because he saw a reason to learn it in the first place.

In Scratch, kids intuitively travel across disciplines as they learn to apply physics to make their character jump realistically or use the Cartesian coordinate system to move their character through a maze. Like Resnick’s student, young coders are inspired to learn new skills because they are motivated to apply those lessons to bring their creative ideas to life. Seeing the product of their knowledge in playable games or interactive storylines is a huge motivator for students, and for good reason: there’s nothing quite like seeing someone enjoy something we’ve made to keep us learning, growing, and creating. Can you tell we love Scratch? That’s why we use it every day in our coding classes and start every beginner student on it.

Just as not every person who learns to read and write will end up a professional writer, not every child who comes through our program will end up a software engineer. But what they’ll learn through coding will take them wherever they want to go. It will challenge them to break complex concepts down into smaller, solvable parts, to experiment, to collaborate through sharing work and editing other people’s code, to figure out why something isn’t working and how to fix it, to push through feelings of frustration and keep going until something new is born, to express who they are and what they care about. As each week of learning passes by at The Coding Space, we see again and again that when our students start learning to code in Scratch, learning to code is just the beginning.

Why Our Coding Students Are Superheroes

4/23/2021

April is one of our favorite months here at The Coding Space. Its showers bring May flowers as birds of a feather flock together to build their nests in the sun-dappled trees and we all wait in wild anticipation for summer. (Okay, okay, we know poetry isn’t exactly our strong suit.)

But we love April most of all because it’s when we celebrate National Superhero Day! This year, on April 28th, we’re calling on all of our students to dress up as their favorite superheroes in honor of this special day.

Why is this holiday so meaningful to us? Well, it lets us imagine a world where we are all superheroes. And what a world that would be. Superheroes are strong, powerful, passionate, and full of talent. They tackle challenges and overcome them. They are fighters and believers. They help others and care about our world. Actually, we don’t have to stretch our imaginations too far because to us, that sounds a lot like our students.

Every week our students come to class and show us their individual talents, their strengths, what makes them unique. They bravely take on new coding challenges. They’re kind to one another and make cool projects about helping others like in our Code 4 Change challenge. And they have a pretty amazing superpower: they know how to code.

Through code, we can impact communities: building a website that connects neighbors so they can share goods or deliver groceries to the elderly. We can solve world problems: programming a crowdfunding app to support public policy advocacy. We can change a person’s day simply by coding a funny animation that makes them smile.

On Superhero Day, we’re asking our students to dress up as a way to remind themselves that whenever they are nervous or don’t think they can do something or feel vulnerable, they just need to conjure their inner armor (or cape or mask) and remember that they are special and strong and capable AND... they know how to code. We can’t wait for April 28th so our students can show the world once and for all the very awesome superheroes that they are.

Introducing a Summer of Coding Adventures: Which Will You Choose?

4/9/2021

little boy coding computer fun surprise

Summer is just a few months away, and we have an exciting line-up of summer coding programs planned here at The Coding Space. Between in-person sleepaway, sports, and day camps, we know families have lots of options to choose from this summer and that fitting everything in can be tough. That’s where The Coding Space comes in. With our flexible online options, continuing your child’s coding education over the summer has never been easier. Our virtual camps, mini camps, and classes will fit perfectly into your summer agenda, giving your child the best of both worlds.

Whatever your awesome plans are this summer, we’ve got your child’s coding time covered. Sending your kids to sleepaway camp? Celebrate their return with a week of coding fun from home. Planning on day camp all summer? We have evening and weekend classes that will help your child continue to hone their skills after an eventful day outdoors. Looking for a class designed just for your child and their friends? We offer year-round private lessons that are built around your needs and schedule.

Our goal in providing this flexibility is to allow your child the opportunity to continue developing their mind, attitude, and thought processes, all while enjoying everything that summer has to offer. Every camp and class we offer features project-based coding where students and campers make games, stories, and animations in Scratch or JavaScript, letting their creativity and imagination soar while learning the fundamentals of computer science. Group activities encourage kids to explore the great big world of STEM and interact with their peers from afar. Every session ends with time for students to reflect on their achievements, struggles, and goals.

Little girl coding smiling fun laughing

Our half-day camp has the added benefit of extended hands-on activities (ranging from science experiments and scavenger hunts to virtual relay races and yoga) and an elective period where campers can choose from a plethora of subjects that interest them, including 3D modeling, music sequencing, graphic novel design, and much more. For a taste of what camp will look like, check out our blog post from last summer. We’re busy building on that foundation, adding in new electives, activities, challenges, and chances to win the ultimate prize: The Coding Space Cup. We had such a blast last summer and can’t wait to continue the tradition.

This summer, choose the coding adventure that fits your child and your schedule. We can’t wait to see you in class!

Grow With Us During Seasons of Code: Spring

3/24/2021

Seasons of Code is back with a new season of fun coding challenges for coders of all ages and skill levels. This free source of daily coding inspiration was created to keep kids honing their skills and exploring the magic of coding, even outside of class. In Seasons of Code: Spring, a new spring-themed prompt will be revealed on our page each day during Spring Break, giving young coders direction and opportunities to learn something new, all at a pace that works for them. Coders can look forward to challenges like creating a game about bike riding, making a project featuring a rain effect, and much more!

Anyone can participate in Seasons of Code. Just have your child go to this Scratch page daily between March 27th and April 10th to see the latest prompt. Once they’ve made a project, we encourage them to add it to our Scratch studio to inspire other students.

We can’t wait to see all of the creativity and imagination that comes out of Seasons of Code: Spring. Good luck and keep coding!

Code 4 Change: Build a Better World with The Coding Space

3/9/2021

We believe that coders have the power to change the world. This belief is the core of our Code 4 Change initiative, biannual challenges that ask coders of all ages to use their powers for good and apply tech-based solutions to real-world problems.

Over the last year, our world has changed dramatically. This has been a period of hardship and upheaval, but it’s also been a time of incredible community-driven support and creative problem-solving, especially in tech. From students using 3D printers to create face shields for healthcare workers to companies like Dyson using their engineering expertise to design and produce new ventilators, it’s clear that ingenuity and kindness still abound. And we at The Coding Space believe that coders can be a part of the solution.

Coding can build a better world. It can make us safer, more sustainable, and more equitable. That’s why, this month, we’re empowering coders everywhere to put their ideas into action with our third Code 4 Change challenge: Build a Better World.

What is Code 4 Change: Build a Better World?
Drawing on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, coders are invited to use their innovation, creativity, and resourcefulness to address a global issue: How can we use code to distribute food to the hungry? To help stop the outbreak of future pandemics? To support activists in their pursuit of equality? Whether it’s on a local or global level, we’re encouraging participants to program prototypes of their creative solutions for real issues facing our world.

Who is invited to participate?
Coders of all ages and skill levels are invited to participate, both inside and outside of our classes. Group, team, and family projects are also encouraged.

How will it work?
Registration opens March 22nd. Once signed up, participants can begin working at any time. In class, our teachers will introduce the challenge beginning the week of April 5th. Students will then have four weeks to work on their projects. On May 7th, we will ask participants to upload their work to a shared platform where other coders and their families will have the chance to interact with the projects and ultimately vote for Coders’ Choice, the project that they feel best showcases both impressive coding skills and a solution to a real-world problem. The TCS team will reveal this winner, as well as winners in several technical categories chosen by our instructors, during a live virtual event on Sunday, May 16th. The projects will then be featured on the TCS website for future students and classes to experience.

What will the winners receive?
Category winners will receive a $50 donation made in their name to support a select philanthropic organization embodying the spirit of Code 4 Change.

How can parents help participating coders?
We encourage you and your child to explore the Sustainable Development Goals before deciding on which to address. Check out this resource about discussing SDGs with kids, and think about what goals they may already have a passion for or might like to know more about. We love when students work on their projects at home (parental decisions about screen time permitting), so you may find them bringing it up in conversation with you as they work or even asking for your help. These are global issues that affect everyone, so working together to solve them is expected and encouraged.

If your child is wondering what’s possible, check out these examples of how programmers are tackling these Sustainable Development Goals already:

Clean Water: In Scratch, the game Clean Water For All teaches how to care for our oceans through proper recycling.
Zero Hunger: Online, Free Rice is a categorized quiz game, in which correctly answered questions cause advertisements to appear on the screen and trigger a financial payment to the World Food Programme.
Climate Action: In games, Tree Planet 2 rewards players who raise a digital tree with a real tree planted in a forest! In the past three years, they have planted 240,000 real trees.
No Poverty; Reduced Inequalities: In app development, Upsolve is designed to support low-income Americans through the complex process of filing for bankruptcy. Read more about their journey here.
Reduced Inequalities; Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions: In AI and machine learning, The Algorithmic Justice League, created by Joy Buolamwini, is fighting for accountability in coding and against bias in machine learning. Hear Joy speak about it here.
Life on Land: In environmental tech and machine learning, the Smart Wildfire Sensor uses machine learning to predict which forested areas are most susceptible to wildfires, providing an early warning to fire departments. This device was developed by two high school students!

The possibilities really are endless. We are so excited about this chance to spark the creativity of coders everywhere toward bettering our world and to celebrate their work as a community.

If your child is interested in participating, please visit our website to learn more and sign up. We can’t wait to see their creativity and innovation in action.