Seattle CoderDojo, a free computer programming club for children 8-18, launched its “Eastside Edition” at Redmond’s DigiPen Institute of Technology on Saturday.
A crowd of more than 200 made up of kids, parents, tech industry volunteers and guests turned out at the DigiPen campus to celebrate and learn.
Beginners were introduced to computer programming with exercises from Bellevue’s Code.org, while intermediate students explored the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Scratch graphical programming environment. Kids ready for something more advanced worked on a JavaScript lesson taught by Seattle CoderDojo founder Greg Bulmash or brought in their own projects from school and home to get help from tech industry mentors.
“In the last year, we’ve gone from a handful of kids in the back of the Microsoft Store to filling multiple conference rooms at Amazon.com in South Lake Union,” said Bulmash, a content developer at Microsoft. “And we still had huge demand on the other side of the 520 bridge. When we started looking for an Eastside partner, we found a great one here at DigiPen.”
DigiPen vice president of external affairs, Angela Kugler, said the decision to host Seattle CoderDojo was simple.
“Even in the backyard of major tech companies, many students still don’t have the opportunity to learn programming in their schools or have the access to people who can teach them,” she said. “What Greg Bulmash has started here in our community is the opportunity for every child to learn how to program in a free and accessible manner. The students who participate will gain valuable skills in computational thinking and problem solving that are essential in today’s time and will help carry them into the future, and that’s an effort we want to support.”
Seattle CoderDojo will be visiting DigiPen again on Aug. 16 and then beginning Sept. 6, will go to a weekly schedule. Meet-ups will run most every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon until winter break. There is no charge for attending and no experience required, but to avoid lines and having to turn people away, parents must register for free tickets in advance.
