The Club worked with Kids Code Jeunesse to deliver an online Coding Club where members were led by qualified instructors to develop coding skills and their own game. The Club interviewed volunteers, Lily Yu and Ryan Samlalsingh via email about their experience in coding, its importance, and the Dovercourt’s Coding Club.

What are you enjoying the most about this Coding Club so far?

Lily: I love seeing kids getting excited when building their coding projects and using programming as a way to express their creativity!

Ryan: What I like about the Coding Club projects is that they feel like “learning without learning”; we start with a goal to build something specific and together, we use what we know to build it. There’s no jargon or testing or arbitrary exercise and this allows us to keep the club from feeling intimidating for new joiners or for kids who are still learning to communicate technically. Further, I’m enjoying seeing such high levels of genuine enjoyment from the kids who’ve participated in the club so far, in addition to the strong collaborative effort  demonstrated by these eager kids to help us develop programs together. Coding is rarely ever a solitary effort and it’s great to see the blossoming confidence and keenness of many of these kids. I look forward to seeing whatever the kids in the club built on their own or with their own inspiration that they want to share!

Why do you think coding is important for kids?

Lily: I think of coding as a paintbrush that enables kids to paint their own ideas and feel proud of the amazing work they make. Learning to code is also a great way for kids to explore the concepts and applications of computer science in the real-world.

Ryan: Coding is helpful for kids because practicing coding in a group environment can, subconsciously or consciously, teach technical and interpersonal problem solving and decision making methods and improve interdisciplinary communication skills such as those needed  or artists to communicate well with engineers and vice versa. These are likely to be useful  to kids in the future in school projects or their careers. Developed coding skills can also be very empowering as they allow kids to build cool, potentially groundbreaking things from games to robots and anything else they can imagine, in any free time and with virtually no costs. Most importantly, in my opinion, is that exposure to coding builds the breadth of mathematical experiences a child has outside of mandatory academics.  Coding professionally can be rewarding, relatively relaxed and lucrative, but like anything else, not everyone will enjoy coding after introductory lessons, and coding professionally can be extremely stressful for people who don’t enjoy it. However, I reckon there are a lot of kids who would enjoy it if they tried it but never tried it, like myself before learning to code in university. It’s certainly worth it for everyone, especially kids, to learn coding at a basic level to discover if it’s a passion to explore further professionally or as a hobby.

Kids Coding Club sessions were faciliated via Zoom. The Club interviewed member, Matthew Pereira Cibrao about his experience with coding.

Have you coded before?

Yes, I have. My father has been teaching me to code. I spent a few years in scratch and now I’m using Python and it is getting more complex. I also have a couple of coding books that I use to learn new things. It is so much fun to code and it is unbelievably crazy to learn new things.

Why did you choose to join this Coding Club?

My Mom got a phone call to let us know that Dovercourt was holding a Coding Club and she asked me if I would be interested. I immediately said YES! The Club started that week, and I’ve been there every week since.

What are you enjoying the most about it?

What I enjoy most about the Coding Club is the chance to relearn and continue to practice stuff. I really enjoy coding so I get to do something I enjoy and I get to share my projects with people in the club.

What have you learned so far?

A lot of what we have been learning are the basics so I have the chance to relearn that stuff and continue to practice. I’m looking forward to learning more things and sharing what I can create with everyone in the club.

Interested in Dovercourt Club's Coding programs? For inquires and registration, please contact: info@dovercourtkids.com