Coolest Projects is back for 2021

Coolest Projects will be returning next year as an online showcase.

The closing date for entries is February 1st 2021.

Each entry will be allocated its own online demo space. Anyone , anywhere up to the age of 18 can enter.

“Young people with all project types and all levels of experience are welcome, from beginners to advanced creators, and it doesn’t matter whether projects are a work in progress, a prototype, or completely finished. We encourage everyone to take part!”

Check out the Coolest Projects 2020 Showcase Gallery

 

 

 

Coolest Projects International 2019

It is that time of year again!

Online Registration is now open for Coolest Projects International 2019 in the RDS Dublin next May. Parents/Guardians will need to login with their CoderDojo account details to register and complete the proposed project details.

The event takes place in the RDS Main Hall, Dublin, on the 5th of May 2019.
Unfortunately, that Saturday is also the start of the May Bank Holiday weekend so check your calendar.
This is also the shortest project preparation period since the event began so decide what you or your group want to submit. Then submit the project outline as soon as possible, you can always change it later.

Entrants can submit projects previously entered in other educational events.
Only one project can be entered by a ninja or group.
Check out the rest of the Rules and Regulations, they are straight forward and easy to read.

Admission is free and it is always a great family day out.

Scratch 2 Python

It was very noisy at the dojo today. Everyone was excited because we tried something new. It turned into a race  with some groups but they made lots of mistakes. My group took our time.

Interesting! So far, so good.

Don’t forget the end bracket.

I got it!

It is European Code Week 2018 and some of us in the dojo are going to try to move from Scratch to Python. First we had to download MU from the internet. MU is a really simple Python editor for beginner coders. The Raspberry Pi group go about things slightly different but it works the same.

Our mentor handed gave each group a cheat sheet  to make things a bit easier. The biggest delay was the MU download because everyone was doing it at the same time. Our mentor said he will have MU on a USB key for the next dojo.

Python is very tricky because if you forget to hold down the SHIFT key you get a ; instead of : and then you get an error.  My coding buddy spotted the mistake.

Typing in text for Python is very sloooooow. Scratch is fast!

Top Three Titles

Three MagPi Essentials publications on Scratch, GPIO Zero and Minecraft

MagPi Essentials Full Colour Publications

 

If you want to buy or borrow a book during the summer holidays check out any of the above titles. They cost less than a take away meal.

Alternatively, the PDF file can be downloaded free of charge at https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/ The full list of all the MagPi Magazine editions and the “Essential” publications are available at this location.

“Simple Electronics with GPIO Zero” is an easy to read step by step guide to the GPIO Zero python library. If you wan.t to go straight to the source click on the following link https://gpiozero.readthedocs.io/en/stable/recipes.html

Enjoy the rest of the holidays.

Open Day at SASNS

It was Open Day at Saint Attracta’s Senior National School today. All the ninjas at SASNS dojo introduced parents and future pupils of the school to the newly arrived BBC micro:bit. Scratch and Minecraft were also put through their paces. Most of our demos worked!

The Theremin wasn’t as musical as we thought but it worked first time.

The girls showed the visitors around and demonstrated various activities. Here Scratch is being shown on a Raspberry Pi 3. The boys also worked hard in the background showing off the 8 Ball and Coin Flipper on the microbit.

Raspberry Pi and microbit working side by side. What do you think of our new badges?

It was great timing! Our dojo Starter Pack arrived just in time and we put what we had learned on borrowed BBC micro:bits into practice using our new kit.

Wow! A club kit of 10 BBC micro:bits was a great surprise.

Lots of other goodies arrived including our badges but we were too busy to check it all out so that is a post for another day.