The Cape Town Science Centre (CTSC) is hosting a Let's Code Holiday Camp this week to provide school pupils with basic programming skills.
According to the CTSC, the aim of the camp is to introduce children from the age of eight years to the world of coding. Campers will learn how to use the visual block programming software Scratch to develop their own game. This will assist the youngsters to acquire basic programming skills and coding concepts that professional programmers use in their daily work, adds the centre.
"The camp provides the children with an opportunity to acquire basic coding skills in a relaxed and creative environment. We provide 15 hours of coding fun, over a five-day period and the opportunity to explore the rest of the CTSC's offerings. Participants learn how to harness the opportunities to think, to imagine, to explore, to create and most importantly, learn something useful while having fun. This also assists in developing an ability to think like a programmer and apply computational thinking concepts to create mini games," says Bafo Yoti, master trainer at the CTSC.
The camp, which takes place at the CTSC's multimedia room in Observatory, Cape Town, is meant to spark interest in creative computing through hands-on and playful learning, he adds.
"The camp costs R440 per pupil, participants are welcome to bring their own device, but are asked to alert the organisers if they wish to do so," notes Yoti.
In December, SA joined millions of people around the world in learning or teaching an hour of code during Computer Science Education Week.
According to Code.org, computer science remains one of the most exciting, transformative and lucrative careers for the youth to embark upon, but is still underrepresented in terms of race and female developers. Code.org is an NGO on a mission to change this through an annual global campaign through which the NGO partners with organisations around the globe in an effort to expand access to computer science to women and underrepresented minorities.
For more information on the Let's Code holiday camp, visit CTSC.
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