On your mark… get set… code! On July 20th, CoderDojo Indiana (CDI), an initiative of TechPoint Foundation for Youth, hosted its third annual CoderDojo Indiana Hackathon, presented by Lessonly. This free, kids coding event engaged more than 99 student coders from around Indiana in a full day of computer science, food, and fun!
The day began with an opening ceremony led by George Giltner, VP of STEM Education, at 9am. Then, those students with some coding experience chose from three exciting challenges: Scratch, Python, or Ruby to showcase their coding skills. Each coder had 2 hours to complete programming challenges from different prompts given, trying to find solutions to problems within the codes!
Meanwhile, beginner coders had the chance to attend My First Dojo, where kids were able to try out a variety of hands-on CS activities using Makey Makey, Sphero, VEX IQ robots, and more.
After a pizza lunch, the Project Expo began! During the Project Expo, kids from all age groups had the opportunity to showcase their homemade coding projects. These projects were broken down by category: Games, Social Enterprise, and Scratch. They presented their projects to other kids attending the event and the judges, explaining what their program does, and answering questions along the way!
While the Project Expo was going on, we were also busy celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the moon landing with the MoonHack! Beginner hackers could try their hand at coding a NASA rover across the surface of the moon, overcoming the obstacles that awaited them!
The day concluded at 3:30pm with awards and prizes for kids in every category. Thanks to our friends at Raspberry Pi Foundation and individual donations, we were able to provide amazing prizes for our Scratch, Ruby, and Python Challenge Excellence and Project Expo winners! Our friend Max Yoder, CEO of this year’s presenting sponsor Lessonly, presented the awards to all of the winning students!
Congrats to all the winners - and check out our Facebook album for more pictures!
Want to join your local Dojo? Email myron@techpointyouth.org for information!