3…2…1… Blast off with Code Club for World Space Week!

Fuel your coders’ imagination and take part in World Space Week (4–10 October) — the largest annual space event in the world! 

Explore our space-themed projects, celebrate the women who have paved the way for space exploration, and learn how your club can send a message into space with the European Astro Pi Challenge Mission Zero.

Women in space 

From Margaret Hamilton’s code for NASA’s Apollo 11 mission in 1969, to Wally Funk joining Blue Origin Crew on board the New Shepard rocket in July, women have been an integral part of space exploration for centuries. 

Here are three real roles models you can talk about in your classroom who have made an impact on space exploration: 

  1. Katherine Johnson, born in 1918, developed calculations that synched Apollo’s Lunar Lander with the moon orbiting Command and Service Module.
  2. Mary Jackson, born in 1921, was the first black female engineer for NASA. She worked to impact the hiring of the next generation of women at NASA. 
  3. Jessica Ulrika Meir, born in 1977, joined Christina Koch on 18 October 2019 for the first all-female spacewalk!

Let the exploration begin 

Our space-themed project collection includes eight projects to appeal to the space-loving coders in your club.

The collection features a brand-new beginner’s Scratch project called ‘Space talk’, where children learn how to add sprites and backdrops and are introduced to ‘look’ and ‘sound’ code blocks to make their sprite emote! 

Space talk

For your more confident coders, explore our Python project called ‘Where is the Space Station?‘. Learners use a web service to find out the current location of the International Space Station (ISS) and plot its location on a map.

If you’re based in the UK, the USA, India, or Ireland, head to your dashboard, ‘Resources’ and scroll down to the ‘Learning resources’ section to download your copy of our space-themed collection. 

If you’re based outside of the UK, the USA, India, or Ireland, head to our Code Club international website.

Space-themed project collection

Send a message to the International Space Station

Bring space exploration to your classroom by taking part in the European Astro Pi Challenge Mission Zero, an ESA Education project run by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. To enter, young people just need to write a simple Python program that will display a message on the International Space Station (ISS)! 

There’s something extra special about this year’s challenge! All Mission Zero participants will have the opportunity to vote for the names of the two new Astro Pi computers that are being sent to the International Space Station in December — how cool is that?

Find out if your club is eligible to take part in Mission Zero and how you can include a name choice in your submission with this handy project guide.

Our new project paths and European Astro Pi Challenge Mission Zero have easy to follow step-by-step instructions, allowing both young coders and educators to reach for the stars, learn together, and succeed!

Share your successes with us on Twitter using the hashtag #MyCodeClub

Young coders take the trophy in the Summer of Sport!

Back in June we asked young people around the world to code a fun Scratch project in the spirit of the 2021 sporting calendar!

In this blog post, the Code Club team shares a few projects from the amazing young coders who reached the Summer of Sport finish line.

Coding in the spirit of the Olympics

With the Euro 2020, Tour de France, Olympics, Paralympics, and many more pandemic-delayed events taking place this summer, sporting fever was everywhere. Physical exercise and being active are essential aspects of wellbeing — an important part of recovering from the impact of the pandemic. 

The Summer of Sport was shared as a fun holiday activity and a way to link coding with getting active, helping young people to connect code with their real-life hobbies and interests. All young coders were invited to participate, either coding from our list of suggested projects, or making something totally new in Scratch. The only requirement was that their final creation combined coding and being active.

Amazing projects 

Lots of clubs and young people coding from home accepted the challenge and we saw Summer of Sport entries fly in from Libya, to Iraq and Scotland. Here are just a few projects that we enjoyed! 

Darren, Code Club Programme Coordinator in Ireland, really loved this fun take on the ‘Beat the goalie’ project from Scratch user cottoncan.

“I really like the way you have made the goalkeeper’s arms move — they seem to mesmerise you and make you want to shoot at the goalie all the time!” 

Learning Coordinator Liz loved this project which shows two people riding unicorns through the countryside.  

“I love the costume editing and animation that Scratch user khtsb has used in this project. The scrolling ‘الكائن’ object makes the unicorns seem to move really quickly. Well done!” 

USA Club Program Coordinator Kevin had a great time playing this fun and creative game from Scratch coder wps-ALT. 

This is a super addictive baseball catching game that plays just like a quick reaction game, and I LOVE quick reaction games! This was a really smart idea!”  

What next?

You can check out all the amazing Summer of Sport entries and get inspired to make your own sporty projects by visiting our Scratch studio.

We’ll be sharing more exciting project collections that link real-world learning to coding soon! Stay tuned for our space-themed collection to support National Space Week (4–10 October), where we will share all sorts of out-of-this-world ideas for the space-mad coders at your club. We’ll be posting all the details here on our blog! 

Got a cool project from your Code Club to share with us? Share it with us on Twitter or Facebook.  

A sneak preview at what to expect from Code Club this September!

With the new term approaching, we ask Tamasin Greenough Graham, our new Head of Code Club, to share some details about the new Code Club resources and support available to you this September. 

A fresh set of club organiser resources! 

We’ve launched our brand-new digital Club Organiser Pack, which is bursting at the seams with seven new resources to support you this term! 

The club organisers’ guide is full of useful tips to help you feel confident running your club sessions. Have fun with the Code Club bingo card, and celebrate your #MyCodeClub success stories with our NEW educator cards and GIFs designed for your social accounts! 

If you are based in the UK, Ireland, US, or India, you can log in to your dashboard to download the pack. If you’re based somewhere else in the world, just head to our Code Club international website

Head to space from your classroom this term 

We are celebrating World Space Week (4–10 October) with a collection of space-themed projects to inspire your space-mad club members on the topic of space! 

There’s something for everyone, from new coders to the more experienced. Check back on our blog later this month to find out more.

Book a chat with us! 

Do you run a Code Club in the UK or Ireland and have any questions about getting back to Code Club this term? We are on hand to help! Our support help calendar has slots available throughout the week for you to book a video chat with a member of the friendly team.  

Run your code in space 

In September, join us to celebrate the launch of The European Astro Pi Challenge, an ESA Education project run in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. 

It offers young people the opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space by writing computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers on board the International Space Station (ISS).

There’s something extra special about this year’s challenge, so assemble your crew, and count down to blast off! 

Building your confidence 

Soon we will be launching new project path crib sheets to help build confidence around our projects. They will help you learn key coding terms and common sticking points, to get you Code Club ready to run your sessions. 

These crib sheets will launch in mid-September. Keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook for the announcement! 

Join our Gender Balance in Computing programme

Starting a Code Club in England this term gives you the opportunity to join our world-leading Gender Balance in Computing research programme and help us understand what inspires young people to study computing at school! There’s no extra work involved and you’ll get your hands on 12 weeks of resources for your club as well as a FREE book Computer Coding for Kids by Carol Vorderman as our way of saying ‘thank you’! 

Sign up and join GBIC today!

We’re here to support you and your Code Club — no question is too small! The team can be contacted at support@codeclub.org. If you have a success story, we’d love to hear what you’ve been up to!