The first @theideasgarage coding club session ran yesterday, Wednesday 16 September, at Chepstow Library. Twenty young people ranging from 8 to 16 years of age attended the club to learn and have fun.
Lots of great and unusual ideas were generated for future projects; sending a camera into space, making a wind power computer, exploding chocolate and creating an App and selling it!!!
David Rogers has volunteered to run some of the sessions. David is the CEO of Copper Horse Solutions, and recently presented at Bletchley Park on some of the security issues facing IoT as part of the NMI IoT Security Summit. The children engaged well with David whilst he explained how coding is used in his company.
Discussions centred on hacking and How to Use Your Cat to Hack Your Neighbour’s Wi-Fi. David’s philosophy is to teach children how to hack for good purposes, to think of innovative new ways to make, break and use anything to create a better world. With many cybersecurity jobs in the UK, these skills are in demand.
The young people had fun exploring hacking, robotics, Minecraft, Raspberry Pi , Python and also some lock picking.
Volunteer mentors, Musician Robert Hickman and University student Ben Bonsor were also on hand to provide their valuable and much appreciated technical expertise.
Sessions are running weekly on Wednesday’s, 4pm to 6pm. All levels of coders are welcome.
Book your place here theideasgarage.eventbrite.co.uk
Looking for Mentors
If you are interested in being part of this rewarding and worthwhile project by sharing your technical knowledge with young people, contact Claire Lewis on 01291 635649.
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