Creative Computing Course 2019

We are thrilled to be opening up our 2019 Creative Computing Course for registration. This is our 3rd year offering this popular course. Unlike other years, we will be running 2 cohorts of learners for free. One cohort will be a mixed class of girls and boys. The second will be for girls. Registration is open until Jan. 2.

Creative Computing is a course developed by an international network of educators passionate about exposing kids to the computer sciences. Broken up into 7 units, this course uses the popular Scratch programming environment to aid young people (aged 8 to 12) in learning the basics of software development. Scratch is used over the world by students to easily create interactive artwork, interactive stories, and video games while acting as a stepping stone to the more advanced world of computer science.

Course Objectives

First and foremost, we aim to provide opportunities for young learners to become exposed to the computer sciences. Our goal is to provide a learning environment that goes beyond what students are taught in public schools about the computer sciences. We will explore software as an interdisciplinary creative act.

Who Are We?

Mike Caplan is a web application developer with over 20 years experience working in non-profit, university, retail, agricultural, and health industries. Mike also runs Refresh Annapolis Valley, a new media professional association to help grow the Valley’s digital technology industry.

Vistassja Williams is a student at the Acadia University Jodrey School of Computer Science in her fourth year of the Bachelor of Computer Science program and active members in Women In Science and Engineering Acadia. Vistassja is a regular contributor to Refresh programming, mentoring our summer camp and co-teaching National Learn to Code Day.

Teen mentors:

• Anna is one of our teen mentors. She is an experienced Scratcher, star student, and avid Girl Guider. Besides coding, Anna loves Harry Potter, Star Wars and musical theatre.

• Solomon has been teaching Scratch to kids his age, younger, and older for several years. As an avid Scratcher, Solomon not only loves to share his enthusiasm for Scratch with everyone, he has won awards for his original Scratch works.

We believe that offering an extracurricular course on Scratch for kids 8 to 12 will help this generation develop a fundamental literacy around the computer sciences.

Format

Creative Computing will run weekly. Each class will run for 2 hours and 15 minutes for a total of 12 classes and 2 weekend workshops.

The class will follow a six unit curriculum. Units are broken down into several exercises that range from 15 to 60 minutes a piece. The class mentors will share teaching and mentoring responsibilities. We will aim to have a 5 students to 1 mentor ratio.

A weekend #ScratchFest will cap off the course. During #ScartchFest, participants will brainstorm an idea, develop a project, and showcase a final prototype using an iterative plan-make-reflect cycle. It will provide an excellent opportunity for participants to invent their own relevant projects to work on, which can be developed as independent projects or in collaborative teams, and demonstrate their knowledge in Scratch within a collaborative, creative, flexible, and playful environment.

Class Size

Each cohort of learners will be capped at 20 learners. The age range of the students sought will be between 8 and 12, but not limited to. Where historically such classes tend to be predominantly male, one cohort will limit student spots for boys to 50% in order to promote diverse gender participation. The other 2019 cohort is exclusive to girls.

Class Location

The class will be hosted by the Acadia Entrepreneurship Centre Rural Innovation Centre at Acadia University. The Rural Innovation Centre supports entrepreneurs and businesses in the Annapolis Valley and provides an incubator program for start up companies. This location gives us both an opportunity to introduce young learners to the Acadia campus, and alows us to draw from works of entrepreneurship taking place at this specific campus location.

Requirements

We are happy to offer our 2019 course for free. Generous community and foundation donations made this possible. Students will also need to bring a laptop to each class. The laptop needs to be able to run a modern web browser such as Google Chrome. A mouse is also highly recommended. Laptops are available for kids who do not have access to their own.

Parents will be asked to provide class snacks on a rotating as needed basis.

Registration

Selection of the 2 cohort participants is based on strength of the application and availability of space. To register, please fill out the below form or open the registration form directly. Registration does not guarantee a spot. Registration will run until Jan. 2. Selections will be announced Jan. 6. The course will begin the last week of January.

Special Thanks

Big tip of the hat to the Acadia Entrepreneurship Centre for hosting our class and Digital Justice Lab for their generous donation to fund the program.

Hosted by Creative Computing. A series of workshops for kids 8 to 13 interested in computer science.