Geek 2015

As part of working for Deeson, we're encouraged to volunteer 3 days a year, giving back to charities and projects in the local community. I'm interested in teaching young people the skills of programming.

This year I ran a fringe event around 'Geek 2015' in Margate and set up a stand at the Geek event itself. 

Geek is an annual celebration of playing games held in Margate, Kent. In the main hall they have example games consoles from the last 35 years of computer games which people can sit down and play.

I took several Raspberry Pis donated by the Kent branch of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and set them on display with some other cool kit such as MakeyMakeys and our own Eggs Box Controller.

The Raspberry Pi is a tiny but fully functional computer intended to be bought for children to allow them to experiment with computing and technology.

I met around a hundred children and their parents who stopped by the stand, finding out about what they need to get into programming at home.

They made their own games with Scratch, a programming language aimed at primary school children. One of the most creative uses was the development of a fast reaction game which involved hitting a banana which got slowly mushier as the week progressed.

For the older children, I'd put together some challenges to work on using the Python programming language to manipulate the computer game MineCraft.

Teenagers who'd never seen programming before were keen to learn when they found out they could take their control of the game to a whole new level by developing things like their own teleportation devices or fire lava from their eyes. These challenges can be downloaded here.

The parents I met were amazed by how fast their kids picked up programming and also in finding out that many of them are now doing this at school; a big change from the reactions I got last year when very few people realised it was possible to do this at any age.

Geek is a fantastic event and one I was pleased to have been given the opportunity to be involved with.

If you'd like to find out more, visit www.geek-play.com.