Release date: August 27, 2024, 4:00 PM
Students in grades 5-8 learned to code during a week-long Summer Coding Workshop taught by Newtown High School senior Virginia Lynch in the C.H. Booth Library. The coding workshop was split into two week-long sessions, the first session held from Monday, August 12th to Friday, August 16th, and the second session held from Monday, August 19th to Friday, August 23rd.
Coding is a type of programming that writes instructions for a machine to follow to perform a specific task. It is seen in everyday life, from calculators and mobile phones to websites and video games.
Designed to get people interested in coding by making it fun and accessible, the workshops are open to all levels of coding, and will teach you how to code using programming languages such as Scratch and Python.
Scratch is a visual, block-based coding language where you drag and drop blocks to create code, and it also hosts a variety of user-created games on its website for others to play. Python, on the other hand, is a text-based programming language, which means that unlike Scratch, you type out code rather than using blocks.
Lynch set up a Google website for her class with a different example project or workshop each day for her students to learn and try, including a short tutorial on how to build a calculator using Python and showcasing different virtual pet games made with Scratch.
The workshop was born from Lynch's desire to create a more rewarding computer science education for students. Lynch started coding early when her mother created a Scratch account for her when she was in the fourth grade. She used it for a while, but eventually, when coding came up at school, she felt like she didn't have the opportunity to try it.
Lynch said she used the online educational coding platform CodeMonkey in middle school but felt it wasn't at her level. Then, in high school, she was excited to take an introductory Python class, but was disappointed by the “laissez-faire, self-taught approach” and felt it wasn't at her level.
“I really want to get a more challenging computer science education,” Lynch said.
Dissatisfied with the coding classes she was taking at school, Lynch decided to focus on programming in order to earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest and most prestigious award in Girl Scouting and comparable to the Boy Scouts of America's Eagle Scout of Merit. To earn the award, Girl Scouts must identify a problem in their community, think of a solution, and develop a plan to put their idea into action to help improve their community.
With Girl Scouts Gold Award, she aims to create opportunities for high school students to teach programming to younger students. She wants to encourage a more challenging computer science education and help students understand the benefits and valuable skills they can gain from learning to code.
This led Lynch to host a summer coding workshop at the library, where she has been volunteering this year, said Young Adult Librarian Darcy Sowers, and her brother, Henry Lynch, has volunteered in the past.
“One of the things I offer my volunteers is that if they really want to, they can run their own program,” Sowers said. “She was interested in running a coding program, and it started from there.”
Sowers believes that by providing learning opportunities for people of all ages through programs like these at the library, they become interested in subjects they might not have been interested in otherwise.
“Having an introduction to Scratch or Python is really important,” Sowers says. “Once they're interested, they're like, 'Wow, this is cool. I want to learn more.' With a lot of these things, once they have the basic knowledge, they can find places online, websites or programs that can help them go further.”
The summer coding workshop wasn't Lynch's first step toward that goal: She also participated in a seven-session video game club in the spring.
“I want to continue with more coding clubs and teach coding to younger students,” Lynch says, “and raise awareness about computer science.” [younger students] “Because if my mom hadn't introduced me to Scratch in the fourth grade, I would never have known that I was good at it or that I liked it.”
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Reporter Jenna Viska can be contacted at jenna@thebee.com.
Newtown High School senior Virginia Lynch, left, helps student Leonidas Dominguez during a summer coding workshop at C.H. Booth Library on Tuesday, Aug. 20. The workshop was held over two week-long sessions and was open to students of all coding levels from grades 5 through 8 and was designed to make coding fun, challenging and approachable. —Bee Photos, Visca
Virginia Lynch will be showing off a virtual Pet Rock game she created using Scratch, a visual, block-based programming language designed to be accessible to those new to coding, as users drag and drop blocks to create code. In the game, Pet Rock is programmed to respond to commands like “Sit!” and “Speak!” with amusing reactions.
Henry Lynch (left) helped out his sister with her coding workshop by answering questions and providing support to students like Harrison Dunn.