Coding Kids has been travelling around regional Queensland, delivering coding and robotics workshops for students, as well as professional development workshops for teachers. We had the chance to visit nine different locations:

  • Thursday Island
  • Longreach
  • Mt Isa
  • Ingham
  • Cairns
  • Rockhampton
  • Bundaberg
  • Kingaroy
  • Gympie
  • Noosa
  • Thargomindah
  • Charters Towers

Here’s a summary of some of the things that we got up to over the course of our regional tour:

THURSDAY ISLAND

When: 5-7 September 2017

Where: Torres Shire Council, Ngulaig Meta Library

Who: Emily and Kieren

How: Funded by Torres Shire Council (funding from State Library of Queensland) and Coding Kids (in-kind)

How Much: $9900 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • A total of 8 robotics workshops over 2 days

Who we worked with:

  • 7 teachers
  • 200+ students

o   Both primary school and high school students

Topics we covered:

  • Ozobot             
  • JD Humanoid Robot    
  • HexaPod Ezrobot
  • Adventure Bot Ezrobot
  • Teacher PD

Click here to learn more about the Thursday Island event.

LONGREACH (first visit)

 

When: 6 & 7 June 2017

Where: Longreach Civic Centre, and Longreach State School

Who: Emily

How: Funded by Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation

and Coding Kids (in-kind) (excluding GST)

How Much: $2200 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • A total of 5 coding workshops over two days

Who we worked with:

  • 180 participants (including teachers, students and parents)

Topics we covered:

  • Scratch
  • Tynker
  • Teacher PD

Click here to learn more about the Longreach event.

 

LONGREACH (second visit)

When: 13 & 14 August 2018

Where: Longreach State School, Longreach State High School, Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School, Qantas Museum, Longreach Library, Pastoral College and Longreach Civic Centre.

Who: 14 instructors

How: Funded by Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation

What we did:

  • 11 full-day workshops each day over two days

Who we worked with:

  • 800+ participants (including teachers, students from Prep to year 9, and parents)

Topics we covered:

  • Scratch & robotics
  • Python & Micro:bit

Click here to learn more about the Longreach event.

 

Mt. ISA

When: 28 & 29 August 2017

Where: Mt Isa Civic Centre, and Mt Isa Central State School

Who: Emily

How: Funding by Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation

and Coding Kids (in-kind)

How Much: $3500 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • A total of 9 workshops over 2 days

Who we worked with:

  • 135 participants (both students and teachers)

o   Includes primary school, high school, and special (high) school students

Topics we covered:

  •  Scratch
  •  Tynker
  •  Teacher PD

Click here to learn more about the Mt. Isa event.

 

INGHAM

When: 8 & 9 October 2018

Where: Hinchinbrook Christian School and Ingham State High School

Who: Emily

How: Funded by teraDigital, Hinchinbrook Christian College, Ingham State School, Ingham State High School.

How Much: $295 (excluding GST) per participant

What we did:

  • Teacher PD workshops over two days:
  • Digital Technologies with Scratch & Makey Makey for primary school teachers
  • Digital Technologies with Python & Micro:bit for high school teachers

Who we worked with:

  • over a dozen participants

Topics we covered:

  • Digital Technologies with Scratch & Makey Makey
  • Digital Technologies with Python & Micro:bit
  • Teacher PD

 

CAIRNS

When: 31 May 2017

Where: Pullman Reef Hotel, Cairns

Who: Emily

How: Funded by Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation

How Much: $2000 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • 3 workshops over the course of 1 day

Who we worked with:

  • 40 participants

Topics we covered:

  • Tynker (with the primary school students)
  • Teacher PD

Click here to learn more about the Cairns event.

 

ROCKHAMPTON

When: 17 May 2017

Where: Rockhampton Regional Library

Who: Emily

How: Funded by Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation

How Much: $2000 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • 2 workshops over the course of 1 day

Who we worked with:

  • 25 participants

Topics we covered:

  • Tynker (with the primary school students)
  • Teacher PD)

Click here to learn more about the Rockhampton event.

 

BUNDABERG

When: 20 June 2017

Where: Bundaberg Civic Centre

Who: Emily

How: Funded by Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation

How Much: $2000 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • 1 workshop over the course of 1 day

Who we worked with:

  • 15 participants

Topics we covered:

  • Tynker (with the primary school students)
  • Teacher PD

Click here to learn more about the Bundaberg event.

 

KINGAROY

When: 8-10 August 2017

Where: Saint Mary’s Catholic College, Kingaroy; St Patrick’s Primary School, Nanango; and Kingaroy State High School

Who: Emily, Elnaz and Red

How: Funded by Engaging Science Grants (Advance Queensland)

How Much: $9600 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • 11 workshops over the course of 3 days

Who we worked with:

  • Over 250 participants (both students and teachers)

o   Primary school and high school students

Topics we covered:

  • Scratch
  • Python
  • Teacher PD

Click here to learn more about the Kingaroy event.

 

GYMPIE

When: 12 August 2016

Where: Gympie Library

Who: Emily and Billy

How: Funded by Gympie Library Services

How Much: $1,156 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • 1 full-day workshop

Who we worked with:

  • 4 librarians

Topics we covered:

  • Scratch
  • Makey Makey
  • Lego Mindstorms EV3
  • LittleBits

Click here to learn more about the Gympie event.

NOOSA

When: 17 & 18 August 2017

Where: Sunshine Beach High School

Who: Thomas and Levi

How: Funded by Engaging Science Grants (Advance Queensland) and supported by Noosa Library staff

How Much: $2996 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • 4 workshops over the course of 2 days

Who we worked with:

  • Nearly 100 participants (both students and teachers)

o   Year 8 students

Topics we covered:

  • Arduinos
  • Spheros

Click here to learn more about the Noosa event.

 

COOROY

When: 18 July 2016

Where: Cooroy Library

Who: Emily and Jocelyn

How: Funded by Noosa Library Services

How Much: $1500 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • 1 full-day workshop

Who we worked with:

  • 7 librarians

Topics we covered:

  • Scratch
  • Makey Makey
  • mBots
  • LittleBits

Click here to learn more about the Cooroy event.

 

GOLD COAST

When: 23-24 January 2016

Where: Elanora Library

Who: Emily, Billy and Elnaz

How: Funded by City of Gold Coast

How Much: $3818 (excluding GST)

What we did:

  • 2 full-day workshops

Who we worked with:

  • 9 librarians

Topics we covered:

  • Learning to code with Scratch
  • Inventing and using design thinking with InnoBits and LittleBits
  • Programming Dash and Dot robots
  • Programming Spheros SPRK+
  • Learning to code with App Inventor
  • Learning to code with Python
  • Building your own programs with Kano computers
  • Programming with Raspberry Pis

Click here to learn more about the Gold Coast event.

 

Thargomindah

When: 20-21 November 2017

Where:  Thargomindah State School

Who:   Kieren and Zach

How: Funded by the Engaging Science Grants (Advance Queensland)

How Much:  $9200 (plus gst)

What we did:

  • 2 full-day workshops

Who we worked with:

  • Local school students, primary and secondary
  • Teacher PD

Topics we covered:

  • Ozobot robots
  • Makey Makey
  • Scratch
  • Unplugged activities
  • Scratch Jr

 

Charters Towers

When: 22-23 November 2017

Where: Excelsior Library

Who:  Levi and Emily

How: Funded by the Engaging Science Grants (Advance Queensland)

How Much:  $9500 (plus gst)

What we did:

  •         2 full-day workshops

Who we worked with:

  • Local school students, primary and secondary
  • Teacher PD

Topics we covered:

  • Lego Mindstorm EV3 robots
  • Makey Makey
  • Scratch
  • Python
  • Ozobots