Pupils in Years 4-6 from schools around the Wakefield District returned to the College in October to continue their Code Club experience in conjunction with Wakefield College and the Wakefield Children’s University.
Code Club runs on a weekly basis during term time and the current group of coders finished their time with us in December by completing the Mission Zero project in conjunction with Astro-Pi.
The children work at their own pace to complete the tasks in each project and at the end of the programme, they are awarded with a certificate of achievement.
Each team was challenged to write their own simple program using Python to display a message to the astronauts onboard the International Space Station.
The coders created a text message, a picture and a temperature reading which would scroll across the screen on an Astro-Pi computer. These messages were then sent to the ISS for the astronauts to see as they go about their daily tasks.
Our teams joined over 6000 others from across Europe in providing these messages and they are delighted to have now received the certificates showing where the ISS was when their code ran. On the 15th and 16th May 2020 the young coders messages were shown whilst the ISS was above the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the Arabian Sea and above Minnesota, USA.
Children’s University Coordinator Kayleigh Moore said “This project was a great way for the children to show the skills they have learned during their time at Code Club. All aspects of the project were completed independently showing just how far the group has come. I hope they all continue to develop their coding skills in the future.”
Pupils who are Children’s University members are eligible to claim credits for attending, helping them to work towards their next CU certificate. To find out more about the Children’s University, you can visit our page on the College website under the ‘About Us’ section.