Robocode – 2020 Spring Home Challenge

Robocode is an open source programming game, where the goal is to develop a robot battle tank to battle against other tanks in Java. The robot battles are running in real-time and on-screen.
During the training days you will learn the basics of Robocode so you are well prepared to participate in our ultimate challenge.

Day – DatesActivity and All Information
Day 1 – April 6th – InstallingInstalling Robocode on Windows
Day 2 – April 7th – Training 1Getting started with Robocode
Day 3 – April 8th – Training 2Evolving your first Robot
Day 4 – April 9th – Training 3Robocode – The final lesson
Day 5+ – April 10th – April 19thRobocode – The Ultimate Challenge
Schedule of the Robocode Spring Home Challenge – Documents to read

Sonic Pi – 2020 Spring Home Challenge

Sonic Pi is an open-source programming environment, designed for creating new sounds with code in a live coding environment; it was developed by Dr Sam Aaron (http://sam.aaron.name/) at the University of Cambridge. He uses the software to perform live with his band.
During the training days you will learn the basics of Sonic Pi so you are well prepared to participate in our ultimate challenge.

Day – DatesActivity and Information
Day 1 – April 6th – InstallingInstalling Sonic Pi on Windows
Day 2 – April 7th – Training 1Getting started with Sonic Pi
Piano, Sheet Notation and MIDI
Day 3 – April 8th – Training 2Next Steps with Sonic Pi
Day 4 – April 9th – Training 3Sonic Pi – Completing your training
Day 5+ – April 10th – April 19thSonic Pi – The Ultimate Challenge
Schedule of the Sonic Pi Spring Home Challenge – Documents to read

MicroBot and BBC micro:bit

The MicroBot remote controlled car project is an ambitious design for kids 11 years and older using three components we bought from TechWillSaveUs:

Here some additional resources:

Robotics with LEGO WeDO 2.0

This project works really well for the younger ninjas who join our events. Using LEGO Education WeDo 2.0 sets and an iPad, the kids are introduced to basic robotics and programming. They build simple robots and use the LEGO WeDo block language to program the robots to do simple tasks.
Preparing for an upcoming Dojo we use some fantastic creations by Yoshihito Isogawa.

We will use some of these projects, like the moving Monkey, dangling on a rope in a robotics class for 3rd graders

Making Music with Sonic Pi

Sonic Pi is a free programming environment developed by Sam Aaron at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

Using a Ruby-based language, kids learn to code by making their own music!

Resources:

Make an Arcade game using GameMaker Studio 2.0

We ran this project our May 2017 and October 2017 events. The kids made their own level in a classic arcades shoot’em up. They drew enemies on paper, scanned in the drawings, edited the images using a graphics program before importing the images into GameMaker Studio. There they made the enemies fly in specific patterns, changed how powerful the enemies are and made boss enemy for the end of the level.

Coding JavaScript in Minecraft

Using a special Minecraft server, the kids wrote JavaScript to build structures inside Minecraft. The kids were guided to build a pyramid, a house and a maze using code and were then encouraged to expirement with their own designs.

Resources: