Adventures in ancient Greece. Races down snowy mountains. Battles through waves of enemies. These were the basis of some of the 58 games submitted to the third annual Code It! Challenge, according to Elacsha Madison, the innovation and digital learning manager at Evanston Public Library.
The games were presented in a showcase Saturday at Fleetwood-Jourdain Center. For 11 weeks prior, students from 5th grade to 8th grade participated in the Code It! program, attending workshops and receiving coding instruction, Madison said. The program focused on extending opportunities in STEM.
“We want everyone to feel like they can have a STEM identity,” Madison said. “We don’t want anyone to be scared off by STEM.”
Madison said this includes an increased knowledge of coding, but also access to the requisite materials. As part of the program, EPL partnered with groups like EvanSTEM and Northwestern’s National Society of Black Engineers to provide opportunities to underserved children in the city.
Kirby Callum, director of strategic project management at Evanston/Skokie School District 65, said the program also aimed to address a gap in coding education.
“In Evanston, our middle schools don’t provide coding classes or units or anything related to coding,” Callum said. “This is a nice chance for kids to keep their skills up, keep coding if they’re interested and (bridge them) hopefully to the high school, where there’s a ton of computer science and coding opportunities.”
As part of Saturday’s showcase, students presented their games and engaged with others, earning stamps that entered them in a raffle. Madison said students were not awarded prizes based on their games quality; instead, she emphasized that participation in the challenge was more important than any subjective ranking.
Parents, like Timothy Neuendorf, also expressed their support of the program. Neuendorf said it was a “blast” watching his son rise to programming challenges.
“A lot of people don’t know how you can (even get) started in coding, and this is a great way for him to learn and get into it,” Neuendorf said.
Kate Orloff said her son had minimal experience with coding before participating in the program, but was motivated by the prize structure. She said she also liked the program’s “community-building” nature.
Many students echoed this sentiment. De’chance Bell enjoyed the program so much that he’d like to continue coding in the future.
“It’s fun because it’s social, and you get to do something that you love,” Bell said. “So really just being around the people helping me and making the games go — I really liked it.”
While Madison hopes students can be similarly impacted by this program in the future, she said the project was losing a major source of funding.
Code It! and similar programs benefited from Project Next Generation, which she said are federally funded grants distributed by the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. Madison said that grant would not be available next year, but program organizers are looking for alternative sources of funding.
“You hear STEM and then you know there’s a big price tag on it,” Madison said. “We want to make sure that everyone has access to these programs.”
Email: s.baker@dailynorthwestern.com
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