Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Code in the Schools: 3rd Annual Game Jam



October 3rd was the start of the 3rd Annual Game Jam hosted by Code In the Schools. I attend this event and thought it went very well. It was very exciting and informative to participate with all the talented young coders. The level of enthusiasm from the participants made it very enjoyable experience for everyone. While observing the process some of the kids took to create the games was unbelievably incredible. Some groups used storyboards, some just jumped right into the process to make the games right from the start. While there had been first timers (myself included) there had been previous participants that attended. 

All in all, I think Code in the Schools organization is doing an excellent job of engaging more inner city students into the wonderful world of coding. Here are a few pictures I took from the experience.


Instructions in Unity

Starting a new project with one of the students.

Students and volunteers

All the students working on their Games

Me Volunteering

If you would like to volunteer, donate or  just check out the program visit code in schools website by clicking Here.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Code In Schools

I love to hear about children who are interested in computer science and coding. It is not everyday that you hear about it or even at all. In Baltimore there is a specific group that is helping this along. Code In Schools is a non profit that provides training to students who want to learn coding. Their mission is simply to bring quality programming classes to under-served and under-represented youth of Baltimore City. 

While I am an avid volunteer, I look forward to volunteering especially when it is related to the technology field. Growing up in Baltimore City, I was not exposed to programming at an early age and wish I could have been. My first real experience with computer science was in my high school computer science class. From that point on I knew what I wanted to do as a career path. So to see so many children coding is heart-warming to say the least. 

Coming up, I will be volunteering for their Game Jam, it's an event in which Volunteers and students get together and create a game using Unity or Kodu game development software. The event will be Oct 3 and last form 8-6pm with an awards reception at 7pm. This should be an all around fun time for both volunteers as well as students. 

If you would like to help and/or volunteer in any way Please visit there website: