Code Club: Library Spotlight
At Code Club Aotearoa, we love catching up with club leaders, volunteers and students from all corners of the country to hear about their experiences so we can share their stories with you!
This month we’re chatting with librarian Frankie, the club leader from Te Aka Mauri, a library-based club in Rotorua.
Kia ora, Frankie! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Tell us about your club.
Te Aka Mauri Code Club was established in 2018, and I’ve been hosting it since 2022. It’s a bit different from other clubs because it takes place in the district's only library, which serves a community of just under 80,000 people! This unique setting means we have a dynamic club with members from all over the district attending one of four sessions each week. We support homeschoolers, young people beginning their journey and loyal coders who have been attending for many years, including some members who are 18. Our curriculum is made up of the Code Club projects with a bit of Scratch Jr and Tinkercad in the mix and we’re lucky to have the support of two volunteers. The library and the council are committed to providing high-quality programmes and services for the community that reflect our core values of innovation, diversity, respect, support, and inspiration!
Club Leader Frankie and a young club member working in Scratch
Volunteer Kevin and a club member completing a Python project
Volunteers Antonio and Kevin working together
Sounds like a busy club! You mentioned earlier that you didn’t have any experience with coding before taking on these sessions, how do you feel running a code club has impacted your own skills, and what advice would you give to others wanting to host a club without prior experience, especially in a library setting?
As someone with no digital technology background (I never had this kind of opportunity during my schooling days!) It's a privilege to now be able to give students the chance to learn how to code both during and outside of school. I believe it's important to have a passion for upskilling and learning new things in both your personal and professional life. With this mindset and the support of my employers, I’ve gained the skills and knowledge needed to carry out these programmes. Discovering the useful resources and support provided by Code Club Aotearoa has been incredibly helpful in implementing the digital education of our tamariki. I’m also at a point now where I’m able to deliver both Scratch and Scratch Jr. to schools and kaiako all over the Rotorua District as part of our wider community outreach. This has proven useful in finding new members for our after school clubs at the library!
To anyone wanting to start a library club, especially in areas where it’s hard to find volunteer support, I would say to them give the step-by-step projects a go! You’ll be amazed how much you can learn from Scratch and you’ll be onto text-based programming and robotics in no time!
That’s so inspiring! We love stories about passionate club leaders and volunteers who join our kaupapa with little to no coding experience themselves. Can you share any challenges or obstacles you’ve faced in leading Code Club sessions and how you’ve overcome them?
It can be a challenge keeping members who have made their way through the Scratch projects engaged when they don’t feel ready to move into text-based programming. We encourage tamariki to work on personal projects and recently, we changed the format of our sessions to better suit our members. Previously, we printed hard copies of projects for the tamariki to follow, but we found that many of the projects had become outdated. Now, members refer to the instructions directly through the web browser, which exposes them to a wide range of resources. To keep engagement levels up, we’ve introduced a rewards system where they can track their progress with the Raspberry Pi paths and earn certificates. Additionally, we have a badge maker as another reward they can earn.
One of the best things about leading a Code Club is seeing students progress from the step-by-step guides to their own creations! I’m aware you want to help other libraries get involved with Code Club, which is awesome! What do you think are the best ingredients for a successful Code Club?
The success of our Code Club comes down to engaging, accessible Code Club resources and dedicated club leaders & volunteers who invest time and effort into making sessions fun, safe and interesting! Over time, we’ve improved and adapted to the needs of our tamariki, many of whom have been attending for years. To keep our long-term members engaged, we introduce new projects, use the rewards system, and a project tracker. We are also fortunate to have two high school volunteers and previous club members, Kevin and Antonio. After completing all the projects, volunteering seemed like the next best step in their journey with Code Club! Kevin has been a volunteer for around two years and has completed his first Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award, and is currently working towards his next one. Antonio is in his second term with us and brings skills from advanced coding programs and robotics. Both have been active participants in library programmes for a long time, and we value their contribution.
A huge mihi to Antonio and Kevin, we believe one of the best ways to grow our program is to strengthen the club student to club volunteer pipeline. We can see it’s one of the easiest and most effective ways to sustain a community based club. I know that Te Aka Mauri is looking to expand on its digital technologies education with another session dedicated to Tinkercad & 3D printing and homeschool offerings, are there any other areas of DT you’d like to tackle?
We just launched our first digital technology programme for homeschoolers on May 23rd, running for six consecutive weeks, introducing participants to Scratch, TinkerCad basics, and 3D printing. In June, we plan to relaunch an afterschool 3D printing programme, which was previously successful and we are looking to expand. At the end of this programme, participants will receive a print of one of their own designs. During the autumn school holidays, I developed and delivered a two-hour session where tamariki designed their own Jibbitz in TinkerCad. All three sessions booked out within days of going online! Due to high demand and positive feedback, this activity will be run again in the winter school holidays in July. We are also working to expand our 3D printing programmes for adults, as it has been highly requested!
Mīharo Frankie! Thanks for sharing your insights with us, and thank you so much for your incredible dedication and being an inspiration to our Code Club ākonga. We appreciate everything you do!
You can inspire and support the next generation to code like Frankie by registering as a Code Club Leader today.