SINCE THE start of the new Code Club this year, club members increasingly encountered difculties when learning how to code while participating in other in-school activities and managing their academic workload. As a result, the Code Club gathered resources for students to learn coding outside of school — mainly through STEM events and online resources.
Members of the Code Club attended the Hackathon at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and following the Hackathon, they were able to bring back Google Cardboard materials, enabling club members to learn about coding. The Cardboard is a virtual reality viewer that can be added onto a phone and unlock new interactive games, providing a new experience in using daily technology. The club intends to provide more materials to THHS that many students do not have access to in a classroom.
The Code Club also invited guest speakers to the school, including Numaer “Nemo” Zaker, who presented several gaming projects to students.
Senior founder Neil Chen said, “We worked with our partner organization hackEDU in order to collaborate on resources for computer science clubs around the country.”
With the addition of many school exams and other extracurricular activities, however, the Code Club became rather inactive.
“I wish it was not dormant. Key people in that club are busy with robotics. They can join robotics because they do a lot of coding there or take computer science with Mr. Connor. Coding is going to be one of the skills along with reading and writing in the 21st century,” said Assistant Principal of Science, Math, and Technology Mrs. Brustein.
Neil commented, “As a result of members having multiple commit – ments, though, most of that teaching is done on behalf of a service we have access to named codeHS.”
The website, codeHS.com, enables students to learn coding on their own. Students can access the website’s courses in computer science, basics of Java, and game development simply by signing up. The Code Club can provide the school sign up code for everyone interested in participating.
Other online websites that can teach students of all levels include CodeAcademy. com and CodeAvengers.com. Like codeHS, these we b s i t e s p r o v i d e m o r e than 100 hours of lessons on how to code. They make these lessons interactive and easy to follow by allowing students to do projects and challenges using JavaScript, HTML, and other programs. These skills can be dedicated to creating one’s own webpage, app, and game — and it’s all free.
Science teacher Philip Porzio said, “Every aspect of society seems to have some investment in apps, so it only makes sense that even more areas will fnd a use for apps in the future.”
