CoderDojo WA welcomes new Ninjas of the North
There is a new breed of ninjas in the north after Ashdale Secondary College launched CoderDojo North over the weekend. Thanks to Curtin University, Bankwest and the Autism Academy for Software Quality Assurance (AASQA), CoderDojo North is ready to motivate coding ninjas to be innovative creators of technology.
“It was great to see such a range of community partners coming together to start yet another Dojo in the community. The launch was attended by senior members across business, the AASQA academy and universities. Without this teamwork and band of volunteers, Dojos just wouldn’t exist!”
Simon Thuijs, Manager of CoderDojo WA.
Coding is a tool that lets you write your story with technology. It is how humans talk to machines and an increasingly important skill for current and future generations.
“In Australia today, 87% of jobs demand digital skills, so it’s really important that we equip our youngsters with knowledge about coding and computers. Already, Ninjas at current AASQA Dojos are being linked up with paid internships and then ongoing roles, going to show that employers are really looking for candidates with these skills.”
Simon Thuijs, Manager of CoderDojo WA.
CoderDojo North is dedicated to students with autism, working to build their strengths for future training and employment opportunities. At the Dojo (coding club), Ninjas (students aged 12-18) will work on code-related projects such as websites, apps, game development and more, with the support of volunteer Mentors from Edith Cowan University (ECU) and Curtin University
Lainey Bradley is Champion of CoderDojo North and mother to a child with Autism who has shone since he started coding.
“My son has been a part of CoderDojo WA since July 2017 and has exceled in his IT and coding skills. He knows what career path he would like to take and to have the support of Ashdale Secondary College, Professor Tan (AASQA) and Dr Cook (AASQA), I know that he will realise his dream job. At long last we, as parents, have hope for the future of our loved ones leaving school and going out into the community armed with the skills to be a success.”
Lainey Bradley, Champion of CoderDojo WA North
Attendees of this exciting launch included Hon Kerry Sanderson AC CVO (Ambassador for AASQA), Lyn Beazley AO (Ambassador for AASQA), Margaret Quirk MLA, Professor Arshad Omari (Vice-Chancellor ECU), Dr Tele Tan (AASQA director) and Dr David Cook (AASQA Advisory Board and ECU).
To find out more, contact Lainey.bradley@curtin.edu.au
A huge congratulation to Brody S (age 9), Dylan K (age 10) and Charles K (age 11) for creating our winning ‘What’s Next’ coding stories.
Brody, Dylan and Charles each received a Raspberry Pi 4 for their coding genius!
Their task was to use their coding skills and innovative minds to create a digital story with the theme, ‘What’s Next.’
Using Scratch, the boys were able to program an interactive story and share their creations with an online community. Scratch is a fabulous, user-friendly and free programming language and online community that helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically and work collaboratively – all essential skills for life in the 21st century!
To check out their winning stories, click the links below.
Brody S (age 9)
What’s Next Zoo Story: An idea about the zoo
Charles K (age 11)
What’s Next?: A breaking News Report from Gobo, and showing what will happen when Covid 19 is over.
On Friday 13 December we hosted the CoderDojo WA end of year party for 2019. The event was held at Scitech, with over 200 of our community members attending for a fun night of presentations, science shows, prizes and pizza.
Thank you to all of our volunteers and the Ninjas, Mentors and Champions who presented their projects on the night and for all your wonderful help throughout the year. The CoderDojo WA community wouldnt be possible with your help.
Click here to see the photos from the event on our CoderDojo WA Facebook Group.
If you’re interested to learn more about CoderDojo WA and possibly starting or joining a dojo, follow the link below.
The Fogarty Foundation is aware that especially in these times of uncertainty, it is important that we stay connected and ensure that we keep all of the people with who we work, fully informed. Due to disruption caused by COVID-19 and taking into account advice and precautionary measures we are putting the following initiatives in action:
Fogarty EDvance
Face-to-face workshops for the remainder of Term 1 have been cancelled (26th and 30th March). We will be providing a couple of shorter sessions via Webinar and recordings. Over the coming couple of weeks, we will monitor how the Term 2 workshops will be run.
UWA Fogarty Scholars
The Scholars will continue with their studies, but we all non-essential meetings and Fogarty Conversations have been postponed for the time being. We will be sending out regular newsletters with updates, Scholars profiles and articles of interest including the importance of good leadership in times of crisis.
CoderDojo WA
It is up to individual dojos to decide whether they will hold regular dojos. As we expect that most will decide not to, we will be putting out ideas for projects and games for ninjas to work on at home, how to keep connected and (potentially) how to run a virtual dojo.
EDfutures
All community events have been postponed for the time being. We will be sending out an EDfutures newsletter soon and will be looking at ways for the community to keep connected and sharing ideas.
Challenging times always present opportunities. We know there has been an increasing focus on the potential of online working and learning. The imperative is now here. There should be significant progress in bringing the best of technology to make this a reality and open a new world of learning that is more self-directed, engaging and forward looking.
At the Fogarty Foundation we are keen to make the most of these opportunities and expect this will inform our operations going forward.
Keep well and engaged.