Family Day at Castlemilk 13th December, 2015 You know that buzz you get when everything's going right? When everyone's enjoying themselves and having fun? Well we had it in spades yesterday at our first CoderDojo Castlemilk Family Day at Castlemilk Youth Complex. Meet the Parents We thought it would be good to share with parents what we do at the club and give them a chance to have a go themselves. It was amazing to have so many parents attend and get involved (and also to just have a chance to have a cup of tea and a chat with them!). The positive feedback we received from parents about the day (and about our club in general) was brilliant and it has really got us thinking about how we can give more opportunities to parents to get involved in what we do. On the day a number of young people who live locally also dropped in and had a chance to try a variety of activities. Most of them really enjoyed the day and we're looking forward to seeing them at future sessions. Glowing Robots During November's session our young people each designed a model robot using Google's Sketchup CAD software, which our friends at MAKLab 3D-printed for us. We gave the finished models out at the Family Day (to much ooohing and aaahing). The thermo-plastic models (which change colour when you apply heat to them) and glow-in-the-dark models were especially popular. "Here's one I made earlier" Get Creative Daddy-o (and Mummy-o) As we had a larger venue to work in this month we had lots of space to do lots of cool things in, such as (big breath)… Robotics Unplugged (Joseph's fantastic activity that helps you learn how robots follow instructions.) Robotics Unplugged with Joseph Keep Calm and Carry On (Ashritha's activity was to create your own web sites using Mozilla's Thimble.) Keep Calm and Keep Coding – making websites with Ashritha. Bling Bling Disco Lights (Emma showed everyone how to program a PiGlow board on a Raspberry Pi using python. The young people made everything from a spinning wheel to sparkly Christmas tree lights!) Twinkly Christmas tree lights Hour of Code (John's activity involved building your own Star Wars, Minecraft or Frozen game as part of the world-wide Hour of Code.) Music Making with Sonic Pi (Simon showed everyone how to knock out some phat beats using Sonic Pi, the excellent music-making creation tool.) Check out the beats! Crazy Musical Instruments and Games Controllers (those who worked with Shay got a chance to play banana and apple pianos and play 'barefoot tetris' with the help of the wonderful maKey maKey.) Barefoot Tetris – getting creative with a maKey maKey Thank You! We'd like to take this chance to thank everyone for coming along and making this such a creative and enjoyable day. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!