Ready for 2016/17 School Year!

     I hope all our dojo’ers had a relaxing and enjoyable summer!   The school season is just starting and we’re delighted to announce that our home for the past few years will remain the same…..Fergal McCarthy and the Kinsale Community School have graciously offered to support our Kinsale Coderdojo once again, and we’re raring to get going soon!   Please say thank you to any of the Kinsale Community School staff that you bump into!

Our current plans have us kicking off our first Autumn 2016 Kinsale Coderdojo evening on Thursday September 22nd.   We will host a planning meeting on Thu Sep 15th for parents/guardians/mentors who are looking to support our Kinsale Coderdojo with active support this coming year.

If you want to be included in the planning meeting, please contact Des Walsh through our dojo email address:   kinsalecoderdojo@gmail.com

We’re looking forward to another exciting and fun Coderdojo year in Kinsale!

Regards, Jim/Nick/Des

Recursion and Nature, in Python

We all know the beauty of trees and plans and animals.  So many of these wonders of the world are build using patterns ….have you ever looked at the leaf of a fern?

Here are a couple of interesting articles that talk about recursion and nature, and the wonder of how complex things can be made up of repeated patterns:

Python and Drawing Shapes

The Nature of Code

To help us learn Python, we learned the basics of using “Turtle Graphics”, which led us to building a full blown tree!   The tree and the code for it are below.  If you want access to the series of steps we used to learn how to draw the tree, come see Jim or Nick.

Below you will find a more basic tree and the code for generating it…your challenge is to see how you can use Python to add the “extra features” that make the tree look more real!

here’s the code:

As always, have fun!

 

What’s Happening 19-Nov-2015

Kinsale Coderdojo’ers…..

We are settling into our new home at the Kinsale Community School, and on behalf of our dojo, I’d like to thank Fergal McCarthy and the rest of the Kinsale Community School for supporting our Coderdojo with such generosity!….please join me in thanking them!

This is our 4th year as a Coderdojo, and we wouldn’t be so successful without our volunteers, so please also give a thanks to all those who support our dojo, week-in and week-out!

Finally, our dojo has started very casually this year, with a focus on mentoring various projects that people are interested in, or helping dojo’ers to find self-paced training ideas, but are planning on big group project for our whole dojo next year, so stay tuned and we’ll have more information in the coming weeks.

Reminder:  

Kinsale Coderdojo meets weekly,
on Thursday evening,
from 7pm-9pm,
at the Kinsale Community School
….see you there!

Happy coding!