Computer Programming
At the STEM Fair there are multiple exhibits for those who are interested in computer programming or "coding" for short. Unfortunately in 2023 the computer programming opportunities are hard to come by in Central Illinois outside of the schools who provide a programming class. There will be an exhibit at the 2023 STEM Fair on CoderDojo, the free computer club, and on FIRST Lego League (FLL) the Lego-building robotics activity for K-6 that includes computer programming.
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), the robotics team competition for grades 7-12, includes programming the robot to work autonomously. Rochester High School's Robot Rebellion team will be there to demonstrate.
Past information on coding opportunities.
Where to start? CoderDojo is a free computer club that anyone can start to encourage students to learn coding. Scratch is a popular coding tool used by the younger students in CoderDojo. Or you can do coding as part of a multi-discipline STEM activity such as with FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and FLL Jr., where you learn to program a LEGO robot.
Hands-on: FIRST offers FTC and FRC competitions which include computer programming of robots. Girls interested in coding should stop by the LLCC Computer Science exhibit to learn about the Girls Who Code program. And be sure to pick up
College and Career: Stop by the FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC) exhibit to learn about UIS's computer science department. And the University of Illinois's Grainger School of Engineering has one of the nation's top computer science departments and is home of one of the nations supercomputing centers.