computer clubs analysis

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• A person has started a discussion 10 years ago on Reddit’s “learn programming” page, asking if anyone has tried to start a computer club for high school students.
• The author suggests starting a computer club for high school students, outlining three potential formats for the club.
• The author expresses concerns with the school district’s budget problems and lack of resources, particularly in regard to the replacement of the robotics teacher.
• The proposed formats for the computer club include:
  • A “learn to program” class, offering short lessons and hands-on instruction for students to learn python/pygame or intro C++ without graphics.
  • An environment where students can team up and write a game together, with the author serving as a facilitator to help them find documentation and provide feedback.
  • A “programming contest” oriented group, where the club would have periodic contests among members and would learn about writing short programs suitable for the contest format.
• The author sets the expectation that students would have their own computers or access to a computer to avoid dealing with out-of-date school computers with usage restrictions.
• Comments by other Reddit users offer suggestions and reflections on starting a computer club for high school students.
• Some users suggest starting with a “learn to Linux class” instead of a “learn to program” class, while others suggest a mix of teaching programming and game programming.
• Several comments suggest participating in local competitions as an incentive for students to show up and work on projects.
• Some comments express concern about funding and resources from the school, while others note the importance of independence and self-sufficiency for the club.
• One user highlights the potential of a computer club to introduce students to a wider range of computer science and technology concepts beyond just programming languages.
• Others reflect on their own experiences founding or participating in computer clubs in high school, including organizing projects for the benefit of the school and working with local computer recycling centers.

• A list of extracurricular computing club ideas, along with some specific challenges to engage children in learning computing skills, that can potentially be helpful for someone looking to start a club, is provided on the webpage. The ideas include:
  • Minecraft
    • Using free Minecraft software
    • Setting specific challenges
  • Bee-Bot challenge!
    • Getting Bee-Bot moving around
    • Asking children to come up with their bee-bot mats
    • Using large sheets of card or display paper
  • Computer animation club
    • Running a club using stop motion ideas
    • Introducing new skills
    • Potentially helping children choose their future career
  • Hour of Code
    • Specific challenges that children have to complete
    • Each challenge builds on previous knowledge
    • Introducing coding to a range of ages and abilities
  • Scratch club
    • Finding out more with Scratch programming lessons
  • Website design
    • Creating simple free websites about a hobby, their local area, books they love, or whatever they suggest
    • Potentially leading to a much sought-after skill in the world of work
    • Requiring extra guidance, which is provided on the website
  • Photo-editing
    • Asking children to take photos round school based on a certain theme
    • Practicing editing the photos using a simple photo editing software like Canva
  • Preparing for an online safety assembly
    • Preparing PowerPoint and their own research about ways to stay safe on the internet
    • Referring to the online safety lessons provided on the website as a starting point
  • iMovie
    • Creating, editing, and saving movies using a great free app on iPads
    • Doing book reviews, a tour of the school, or whatever piques the children’s interest
  • Google Earth
    • Asking children to list a series of places they have always wanted to visit
    • Finding the places on Google Earth
    • Choosing a different country each week
• Kapow Primary offers a free trial for more computing club ideas and resources.
• The webpage highlights the importance of creativity, collaboration, and the enjoyment of learning when it comes to extracurricular computing clubs.
• Some useful resources on the Kapow Primary website in the context of computing clubs are:
  • Bee-Bot Unit
    • Providing more ideas for Bee-Bot challenges
  • Scratch programming lessons
    • Having a range of Scratch programming

• Ideas for activities that a high school computer club can engage in:
  • Programming problems found online that require the group to work together to solve
  • Creating games (ensuring that members with graphic design experience are in the team)
  • HTML, CSS, and JavaScript introductions and practice, including presenting and coding in a group setting with mentor support
  • Learning Python and developing mobile and web applications
  • Solving programming problems on dmoj.ca and practicing for competitions
  • Working on small teams to tackle problems from USA Computing Olympiad (USACO)
  • Building small Raspberry Pi projects (e.g., MAME or ISS above tracker) that incorporate coding and hands-on component building
  • Learning Unix systems and basic commands like navigating the file system, access RESTful APIs with curl, file permissions, ACLs, firewall rules, basic routing, and the structure of an Ethernet frame and capture using tcpdump
  • Building bots that require both programming and hands-on component building
  • Partnering with a college or university computer science club or participating in programming competitions.
• One inappropriate and irrelevant comment involving distasteful humor-centric advice to enslave mankind with nanoviruses.
• Suggestions for club organization and member management:
  • Finding ways to engage members with diverse interests and skill sets, including web design and development, back-end engineering, hybrid app development, etc.
  • Encouraging members to pick their project and consider adding database components.
  • Inviting local universities to work with high-schoolers to teach programming or sponsor or partner on projects.
  • Teaching newbs the basics of what, why, and how in a supportive environment.
• Suggested programming languages and software:
  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, and Bash.
  • Python libraries like Pygame.
  • Unix systems and working with Linux live images to boot Linux on a thumb drive.
• Additional suggestions for projects:
  • Brick breaker game using Pygame in Python after teaching campers the basics of logic, loops, and polymorphism.
• Considerations for ensuring successful participation:
  • Making sure all members feel supported and a sense of belonging, including writing code in subgroups or one on one with mentors when the group is too large.
  • Encouraging members to keep working through coding problems or challenges, even if the solution is not apparent at first.

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• A user on Reddit posted about starting a computer science club in their high school. They wanted ideas and advice on how to get started and what the club could do.
• One user suggested FIRST Robotics, which would introduce a variety of ideas and knowledge to everyone with an engineering itch. The club would have programmers, designers, 3D modeling, machining, electronics, etc. and everyone would have the opportunity to learn and compete with other schools.
• Another suggestion was leet code sessions and mini-projects like making a LAN chat, games, solving traversal algorithms, sorting, etc.
• A Reddit user also suggested training for the USACO to get into competitive programming, which is a nice resume booster for college and job applications.
• Another idea was to write programs to play chess and compete with the members of the school’s chess club.
• If members were interested in the cybersecurity side, the group could look at the PICOCTF challenges and try to compete in it.
• Another user suggested that hacking might be a good option for the club since it inverts learning. There are a lot of online events that hackers compete in, that do not require physical presence, which gives more opportunities to compete in group events, rather than just the physical meetup opportunities. Hacking will attract a diverse set of people, which is beneficial because it will bring diversity of thought.
• The user recommended focusing on hacking because it is by far the most approachable way to learn computing and it inverts the way you think about computing. It can make it very digestible and teach computing from a different angle. There are also hacker bounties which pay real money so there are endless sets of challenges to work on as your club levels up.
• They also gave links to several resources for hacking, including Hack the Box, Hackaday, HackThisSite, Break The Security, Hacker101, and SecurityTube.
• A user offered to help get the club started, even if it is just to throw some curriculum your way and be a guest speaker for you.
• Someone suggested building an 8-bit computer from scratch.
• The Harvard CS50 course was recommended, and members of the club could work towards the certificate. The final project for the course can be a group project for the whole club.
• Another suggestion was to look into national competitions that can win you prize money.
• The National Cyber League was suggested as a good semi-annual competition to work towards. There are two individual rounds and a team round every six months or so.
• Members

• Extracurricular activities hold growing importance on college applications, so pursuing activities one is passionate about is key
• Starting a computer science club could aid selective computer science programs’ admissions process being increasingly competitive
• Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts an estimated 11% growth in computer science field by 2024, with the current average salary constituting over $110,000 annually
• Starting a school-sanctioned club involves looking into established protocol for approval and identifying a faculty adviser
• Access to computers and/or tablets is important to consider while applying for a computer science club
• School libraries and community centers are willing to share their resources and host groups of committed students
• A brainstorming session for ideas on challenges or problems faced by the community that could benefit from the use of computer science should be held during first meeting
• Fun activities to participate in throughout the year, such as field trips or robotics challenges, should be organized as well as study sessions for Computer Science AP exam
• Grow With Google provides important tools for programming and computer skills that students can make use of
• Sharing what the club has been working on throughout the year can be done through medium options mentioned above or by arranging a time to offer free introductory coding lessons
• The website offers a free chancing engine that shows students their real chances of admission and shows how they can improve their profile when they sign up for a free account
• The site provides guides for various subjects ranging from academics, choosing courses, standardized tests, extracurricular activities, and more
• STEM scholarships and extracurricular activities for aspiring journalists, future BS/MD applicants, and high school sports captains are mentioned.
• The site suggests guidelines for applying to Carnegie Mellon, a guide to choosing high school electives, community service options for music majors, and a beginner’s guide on starting a business in high school.

• User is starting a computer science club at their school and looking for activity recommendations
• User has taken the equivalent of AP Computer Science A and is learning Swift
• Most CS-interested students at the school are at a similar level
• One senior exchange student is a national CS champion
• Existing clubs at the school are typically not serious and attract members who don’t participate
• Possibilities for club activities include assisting with CS homework, exploring CS concepts like graph theory, and helping the school’s VEX robotics team
• Hack nights are a popular recommendation, where attendees come together to build things with no homework allowed
• Java robots are another suggestion; students make robots in Java and have them fight each other
• Upperclassmen giving presentations about what they’ve learned is recommended
• Movie nights are a suggestion; fun, cheesy movies like Hackers can be shown and attendees can pick apart technical inaccuracies
• Some users recommended going outside or doing other things beyond computers and code, such as playing games, walking, making a podcast, drinking coffee, and socializing
• The user suggests involving younger students from local shelters, coding with Scratch, and making interactive holiday cards or games as part of outreach activities
• Another user recommends becoming involved with a national CS organization like ACM for networking, material, and recognition
• The partition problem, which involves determining whether a group of rocks with integer weights can be divided into two groups with the same weight, is recommended for its challenge
• Suggestions for large-scale projects include writing an OS, working on a compiler, or modding games like Minecraft together using a Github page for collaboration
• Raspberry pi and Arduino are recommended for their usefulness in learning to code things that move, turn on/off, and blink
• Machine learning resources are also suggested for exercises that are easy to follow
• Local programming competitions and USACO are suggested as resources that can help shape a career in the field
• Suggestions for running a successful club include providing resources for a place to gather, like an old workstation or cheap electronics kit, and involving both the school and local companies for exposure and material
• Networking with local IT departments for access to computers, power, rack space, and other resources is also recommended
• The user stresses the importance of using resources to do things instead of providing stuff to do, and making sure the club survives after original members are gone

• The page provides guidance on running an after-school Computing club for children.
• The author focuses on providing children with an opportunity to use technology in ways they might not be able to during their regular ICT lessons in class.
• The author describes the challenges of teaching a large group of children with varied skills and abilities, where he was the only adult in the room.
• The author created a wiki using a free service (www.wikispaces.com) to provide the children with step-by-step instructions for the ICT challenges that he wanted them to try.
• The wiki allowed children to work more independently and learn how to complete the activities by themselves while allowing the author to act in a supporting role, rather than teaching lots of different skills to large numbers of children at once.
• The wiki had a ‘Register’ page, where children recorded their achievements on completing an activity and saved their work so that the author could upload their creations to the school website.
• The author organized various activities as part of the Computing club, which included musical composition, avatar creation, web generators, stick animation, and more.
• The author organized sessions in each set of clubs devoted to the creation of a ‘big’ project, where everyone worked together on a single task, such as creating a bouncing ball-style advert.
• The author experimented with 2Simple’s 2Do It Yourself software, which allows children to make their own games and interactive activities.
• The children enjoyed making their own platform games using characters of their own creation, or based upon games that they actually play at home.
• It’s also possible to make your own on-screen jigsaw puzzles, quizzes, and labeling activities, which could be used to make educational resources for other children.
• The webpage provides a link to another webpage with more ideas for ICT club activities by Simon Haughton.
• The author recommends limiting the club’s duration to an hour a week, as it can be challenging for children to focus on technology for extended periods.
• The author encourages allowing children to lead some activities and believes that providing a choice of activities is essential.
• The author believes in providing children with some freedom and independence with their work so that they can explore the technology fully.
• The author suggests using peer-to-peer learning, where children can help each other, and a notice board to keep children motivated and productive.
• The author provides additional resources at the end of the page, such as advice on internet safety, animation and stop-motion apps, coding games, and coding platforms for children.
• The webpage contains various

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