Tickets ( get them while they are hot)

Post date: Sep 18, 2017 7:58:39 PM

The set of dates for the term are;

25th September Start of CoderDojo Castleknock Term from 7:30 to 9:00pm

2nd October from 7:30 to 9:00pm

9th October European Code Week themed ( http://codeweek.eu/) from 7:30 to 9:00pm

16th October from 7:30 to 9:00pm

23rd October Halloween Themed from 7:30 to 9:00pm

30th October - Midterm - we are closed

6th November from 7:30 to 9:00pm

13rd November from 7:30 to 9:00pm

20th November Christmas Themed from 7:30 to 9:00pm

27th November from 7:30 to 9:00pm

4th December - Last Day of term from 7:30 to 9:00pm

I sent out some details to folks who queried when we were restarting over the summer, and as a lot is still valid, I will repeat some here;

We do not operate a waiting list, we email anyone who contacts us to point them to our ticketing system. As they say, "when their gone, their gone !".

regarding age,

We run a variety of courses, the age profile from the last term was;

As some of the courses have changed, there is no guide for Starting Programming, but I suggest older rather than younger.

Click on this link to get an idea what courses are and this link to where they are pitched, technology challenging wise. You know your child best, so have a look at the links before booking a ticket when you are emailed the ticket booking link.

We are providing 3 courses this term;

• App Inventor for Android Phones ( beginner and improvers ) - Media Apps
• Starting Programming
• Game Development - part 1 of 2

Now, as we realize in IT, if you are standing still you are going backwards, so we have replaced Web site Design with Beginners Programming and tweaked the Unity Course to "Game Development - part 1 of 2", to reflect a need to understand a bit of C# ( programming language rather than musical note ).

As this was only agreed this last week we currently have no resources to share with you, they are coming shortly.

App Inventor for Android Phones ( beginner and improvers ) - Media Apps

Suitable for beginners. Improvers from last year are welcome and will be able to work on their own projects where subjects are repeated. You will create 'apps' on Android mobile phones using App Inventor ( See http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ )

http://www.coderdojocastleknock.com/home/resources-1/app-inventor-resources/app-inventor-2017 is a link to material used in previous classes to help get a feel for class.

Starting Programming.

There are lots of programming languages, so rather pick one, the concepts are being focused on, its like driving a car, once you know how to drive, its not a big issue what model of car you drive.

Who – Ninjas 8 and above. Ninjas 12 and below must have a parent to assist (it’s ok to learn together). No prior experience needed. Laptop required.

What – A course to teach fundamental programming concepts. We will use JavaScript as a vehicle for this. The reason for this is that JavaScript is accessible embedded in a web page, and it allows easy access to graphics. Using graphics early gives early feedback to help Ninjas see the effects of their work. However the real goal is to give Ninjas currency with fundamental coding that could be used to start working with languages like Java. Python. C#. etc. BUT this is not school this is going to be fun.

Game Development - part 1 of 2

Mastering the fundamentals of C#. The games development engine Unity (https://madewith.unity.com/) uses C# as its underlying programming language so while term 2 ( after Christmas ) will expand on games development using Unity, first of all, to be able to make your games do what you want them to do, in term 1 we will concentrate on the fundamentals of programming in C#.

Note on the last night of the term, we do a 'show and tell'. to give everyone an opportunity to explain what they have done ( this is our way of getting everyone used to presenting concepts to groups ).

So what happens next ?

If a course interests a ninja ( child), book a ticket following the ticket link. We ask for a number of details, and its reasonable to ask why ?

• Age - As there is a legal requirement that a guardian of a ninja under 12 remains in the school, we need to know age. Also to give feedback as to average age of class attendees, we ask for this information so an informed decision can be made by you.
• Gender. We track gender take up of tickets to be aware of CoderDojo Castleknock gender breakdown v world figures ( 30 % female )
• Mobile Phone number, so if there is an emergency, we have contact details. ( We hope never to use it ! )

Book a place for a ninja, we have enough room for a guardian to be present also.

Come along to Castleknock Community College for 7:30 on September 25th.

Bring printed out copy of Event Brite Ticket ( This is important ). The ticket covers all dates from now to Christmas. We need it for the first night only.

We ask ninjas to sign in at start of evening and sign out at end of evening. The reason for this is twofold;

• To ensure if we have to leave the school for an emergency, we have a count of ninjas ( we hope never to use this :) )
• To ensure when we finish each evening all ninja's are accounted for and nobody is left behind !

Please note some tickets are already gone to mentors. This is because as per Join the Dojo page on our website

• Children of volunteers will get a guaranteed place (This only applies to active volunteers)
• All other tickets will be first-come, first-served.

Finally while we have provided a lot of serious and necessary details, but we aim to have a fun time.