Can you think back and envision your life when you were 11 to 13 years old? I most definitely can.
Those years were filled with the most awkward and cringe-worthy moments of my life.
One such moment was the first day of Grade 6. I was in a brand new school where I only knew one other girl in a different class. I had decided to bring my fanciest and most beautiful Barbie doll to show off, thinking that it would be my success to making new life long friends.
I found out immediately that my 11-year-old logic was terribly terribly wrong.
It turned out that bringing dolls to school was not consider “cool” anymore once you have reached middle school and that popularity lies within electronics and devices.
This still remains true 15 years later.
The latest trend among the pre-teen generation is coding and robotics.
One of the most recognized coding-centric game on the market is Minecraft.
You may have heard of Minecraft from your children or from one of the million videos on YouTube, but it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the coding and robotics world.
Ozobots are marketed as the World’s Tiniest Robots and are programmed to read lines and colours on the surface below them. Using markers, you can make race tracks for the bots to follow and use colour codes to make the Ozobot perform actions such as zigzag or nitro boost.
Every kid loves video games and most of the time you can’t seem to pry them away.
Using Bloxels, you can turn that passion into a learning experience.
Bloxels allows you to create your own unique video game using its game board, some blocks and a tablet. Each different colour of blocks represent something in the video game such as, enemies, power ups or terrain. The possibilities of what can be designed are endless.
You can even design robots using magnetic blocks called Cubelets.
These blocks can be snapped together without using any programming or wires to create fully functioning robots.
You can build robots that drive around on a tabletop, respond to light, sound, and even temperature.
All of these items and more will be available for kids ages 11 to 13 to try out at the library during our Full STEAM Ahead program on Tuesday, July 3 at 6:45 p.m. We invite you to drop in, hangout and see what awesome creations you can come up with.
For more inspiration, the library has plenty of books full of coding and programming information such as Cool Coding by Robert Hansen.
If you are already inspired and ready to start creating, The Big Book of Makerspace Projects by Colleen Graves might be up your alley.
If fiction is more of your style, there are even novels based around coding such as Cyberia by Chris Lynch and Click’d by Tamara Stone.
Kayley Robb is an Assistant Community Librarian at the Summerland Branch of the Okanagan Regional Library and is almost cool enough for Middle School.