Aug. 12, 2014 By Michael Florio
This neighborhood’s local kids will have the opportunity to learn computer coding.
Two non-profit organizations, artspaceQ and the Variety Boys & Girls Club, are teaming up with the Sunnyside branch of the Queens Public Library to offer a free six-course class to 14 local children (ages 7-9), called “KidCode.”
KidCode, will be taught on Mondays and Tuesdays at 4 pm, starting October 6th. Hal Eager, programming designer with Door3—a Manhattan-based software/design firm– will be teaching the class.
Coding is the term used for creating instructions for a computer in order to get it to do something (see video of similar programs).
“Kids have the capacity to enjoy and invent their own concepts…building on the skills they are already picking up from games,” said Eager, who has a 7-year-old son.
The library will provide space, Wi-Fi and laptops for the class. The children will not need their own computer to take the course.
The program will be offered to local children on a first-come, first served basis.
For people with children interested in the program, please e-mail kidcodeQ@gmail.com
9 Comments
Wow, nice comments, whew, and thank you SP for covering! Thank you, also Woodside Herald who put in a pix of Hal. We see great response so far at kidcodeQ@gmail.com!
Correction: Martina Dolan is not teaching the class, Hal Eagar is and he is constructing what is taught. Martina is a learned volunteer who will help Hal with class materials as needed.
Registration is not yet open. The class will be at 4pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. For more details, see https://www.facebook.com/artspaceQ. We send emails to all who email us and post on fb when registration will open.
In case there is a line around the block like for banana flapjacks and we hope so, we will be a library when registration begins so that we can take down who is interested for the future and what time of day is best for those who don’t get into the first class.
Registration is democratic, open to boys and girls, and not fixed except in regard to ages.
This is a pilot course, and we will find out if as experts say, younger kids take to it. Nothing against Girl Who Code and their great work, but Time Magazine reported that China is finding less resistance to both sexes going into computer science, because they teach both genders very early. Not that you will need a degree to get work, according to the WSJ.
In order to take the classroom to other times, places, and ages, including adults, we are buying seven laptops (Hal reports that two student minds are better than one on this so two people share.) Thank you Amy FitzGerald of Welcome Home Real Estate for donating $500 so far via a TV shoot passing through. (Laundromat mixer fundraiser to be announced to fund the rest! Future funds only to buy laptops for the future so we can have classes anywhere. We will also try BYOL, bring your own laptop to a local bar. Code.org has some great online classes which are not frightening at all, which are fun to try alone.
This course is free and we have all we need. Thank you to our great library and the Sunnyside Branch for supplying computers, room, and Wi-Fi. No one is paid or will be in connection with this class.
Check out artspaceQ’s Trevor Bowen’s Open Mic Night at the Globe Tavern formerly known as the Brogue tomorrow night! Got a talent? Come run it up the flagpole. Sign up begins at 9pm. The Globe Tavern has a film shoot all day so pub closed until 9pm.
Thank you!
-KidcodeQ team: Pat, Melissa Orlando, Trevor Bowen, Nick Reiner, John Renda, Martina Dolan, Joseph Schiavone and Hal Eagar.
More about Hal Eagar: http://door3.com/hal
Downtown the young ones are coding
Downtown the young ones are coding
We’re the kids in America (Whoa)
We’re the kids in America (Whoa)
System.out.println(“Fart”);
This is the best thing I’ve read on the site in a long time! I have nothing but respect for artspaceQ and the Variety Boys & Girls Club! Please more of this!
I’d rather send my kid to sports camp.
How interesting. Wish I knew how more about it.
They should do this for adults as well.
incredible! I wish something like this was around when I was a kid. Have fun with those ‘for’ loops….
This is very cool, would be great if the kids can be a little older. Seems like a great chance for 10-15 yr olds to learn some real skills. Thank you for bringing this to our neighborhood