We started today’s session by looking at 3-D Modeling using FreeCAD. FreeCAD allows us to build complex 3-D designs using primitive shapes like cubes and cylinders. You can download FreeCAD from here and the video below will help you get started.
Our teams have finished deciding what they are going to work on for the Raspberry Pi Pioneers Challenge and they also have picked team names.
At the Hackers group, we started learning how to use 3D printers this week. 3D printers are a fantastic technology for turning 3D computer models into physical objects. They are also impressively inexpensive. For example, one of the printers we are using, the Arduino-based Materia 101 printer, costs about €600.
Thanks to Kevin’s employer, Boston Scientific, who have loaned two 3D printers to us and are also covering the cost of the plastic “ink” used in them.
Here are Kevin’s notes on how to set up a 3D printer: 3d-printer-setup (PDF)
Understanding the internet! There was great excitement in CoderDojo Athenry as we got started in the creators group. This week we started off by chatting about the internet and talked about how it actually works – we learned: That “Servers” … Continue reading →
Wow! what a fantastic turnout on Saturday for our first week back this year. We had our highest recorded numbers in the Dojo this week. 245 Ninjas and Parents, incredible.
Our little old room had 130 alone, so probably over 80 of you Ninjas came to start coding and make your first game. I hope you had a good time, I know that I really enjoyed it. There was a really great atmosphere and energy in the room.
Please take a look at them as they contain details on each of the palettes that we didn’t go into fully on Saturday. It also contains all the code for each sprite in case you missed any part.
We will continue to add to the game next week but don’t worry if you weren’t here this week, I will have a copy of the game so that you can join in.
Don’t forget, anyone can join at any stage, let your friends know how much fun your are having.
We started today’s session with some information about the group and our plans for the year ahead.
We spoke about Digital Making, Digital Makers use technology to make something and learn about that technology while doing so. Technology available to Digital makers includes Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Fritzing, Sensors, Displays, 3D Printing and basic components.
Our Philosophy in the Bodgers group is that the most important thing is to get the project working. We don’t worry about how secure, how robust or how pretty our project is as long as it works long enough to show it works and that we understand how it works. We will use whatever resources we can get our hands on, online tutorials, online code, cheap components and cheap and easily available materials.
This year we will focus on projects, I will do some demos but there won’t be classroom type sessions. We would like you to work in teams. We will do one project between now and Christmas and another between Christmas and June. We would like everyone to work on the Pioneers Challenge between now and Christmas, after Christmas you can work on anything you want maybe Coolest Projects, Scifest or even PiWars.
We watched an excellent Video by @estefanniegg who takes a similar approach to project building as we do.
We then had a brainstorming session for the Pioneers Challenge and as you can see we had some great ideas.
We have narrowed down our ideas to a few projects and the mentors are busy trying to source materials for next week.
We will enter some of our projects next week and we might have a look at 3D printing software.
See you then,
Declan, Dave and Alaidh
By the way don’t forget to check out our Twitter account @CDA_Bodgers
Thanks to everybody who came along for our information session on Saturday 16 September 2017. You can find the overview presentation here: 1-CoderDojoAthenry-InfoSession-2017-Sept (PDF).
This year, we have 5 different rooms with different topics in them, for different levels of experience and age, as shown in the diagram below.
You can find out more, including the schedule of Saturdays that our dojo will run, on the About page of this website: https://coderdojoathenry.org/about/
I’m looking forward to another great year of Bodging. This year our focus is going to be mainly on projects and I’m hoping to use the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Pioneers challenges for inspiration.
The first theme is… ONLY YOU CAN SAVE US!!!
A calamity of epic proportions is underway, and you and your team are the only ones who can save us! Can you create something that will protect the world during the apocalypse? What about something to avert the apocalypse altogether? Time to get your survival kits out and your thinking hats on, as you #MakeYourIdeas and save us all!
You can get more information here and there are some resources here
CoderDojo Athenry is re-starting after the summer!
We will have an information session for new and existing members on Saturday 16 September 2017 at 12:00 in our usual venue, Clarin College Athenry (formerly known as “the Tech”). Usual sessions will resume the week after, on Saturdays at 12:00.
We hope you can join us. You are welcome to invite your friends along too!
New members are always welcome. To join, just come along on the first day and fill out a registration form. Young people aged 12 and under have to be accompanied by a parent/guardian for the whole session.
And don’t forget, CoderDojo Athenry is run by volunteers and is completely free for participants — no membership fees, no weekly contributions. You should bring a laptop if you have one, but we have some loaner laptops if you don’t. There is more information on our About page.
CoderDojo Athenry 