what next Autumn 2019

A demo/explanation of subject areas from last term were shown at meeting on 16th September . These were;

• Introduction to Electronics with Arduino
• Exploring IT with Micro:bit
• Writing apps for a smartphone with App Inventor

It was noted on of the purposes of CoderDojo Castleknock is to provide an opportunity to investigate technology. If someone does not like it, at least they have tried it

and make an informed decision, so we do not get uptight about attendance, only if someone cannot attend at all, takes a ticket and thus denies someone else an opportunity.

Not mentioned at meeting is at last night of team, we have a ‘show and tell’, which provides an opportunity for children to present what they have created to an appreciative audience. This is a valuable skill of being able to marshal your thoughts and present to others.

Term is;

• Monday 30th September - Night 1
• Monday 7th October - Night 2
• Monday 14h October- Night 3
• Monday 21st October - Night 4
• Monday 28th October Mid-Term, school closed and so are we!
• Monday 4th November- Night 5
• Monday 11th November - Night 6
• Monday 18th November- Night 7
• Monday 25th November Last term night - show and tell

We take feedback after each term to know what works and equally what does not work. We will thus rerun;

• Introduction to Electronics with Arduino
• Exploring IT with Micro:bit
• Wrriting apps for a smartphone with App Inventor

There are a number of limiting factors re class size;

• ·Hardware kits
• Classroom size
• ·Number of mentors

For Arduino and microbit, we use hardware kits. The class is limited to the number of kits.

For app Inventor, when we say 16 places, add another 16 parents/guardians and you have a full room

For child protection reasons we need 2 mentor in each room.

Insurance

We have a requirement to provide our own 3^rd party insurance. We have cover to the end of the year. Insurance costs ~ €350. We have ~€100 in Credit Union account. So some fund raising is required before insurance becomes due.

Next steps.

The plan is;

· Create tickets in event brite

· Subject lead mentors sign off tickets

· Soft release tickets to mentors on Friday 20^th using;

· Publicly release tickets on Monday 23^rd using;

· Start of term on Monday 30^th

Note, due to allergy requirements, school is a nut free area.