Artificial Intelligence

Get ready to code: This is our Code Club!

We’re kicking off a new season of coding fun with three new ‘This is our Code Club’ projects for registered Code Clubs that are all about creativity and storytelling. Get ready to bring your club’s story to life through code!

Two young girls engaged in a coding activity, smiling and collaborating while working on laptops, with a colorful 'This is our Code Club' graphic in the background.

These three new exclusive projects are designed to help creators bring their Code Club’s story to life. The best part? When you share your finished projects with us, you’ll get a special sticker pack, including brand new glitter stickers! You have until Friday, 24 October to share your projects with us.

For registered Code Clubs, full details can be found in your inbox. Search for “This is our Code Club”. Not a Code Club? Register today to unlock access to these exclusive projects!

Let’s explore the projects and how you can use them in your Code Club.

Our flatgame | Scratch

Our flatgame is a one-of-a-kind project that mixes video games with poetry! These games are simple — creators can quickly make a full game and focus on their ideas instead of complicated game mechanics.

Young people start by creating their own physical assets — sketches, drawings, or even cut-outs of things they love about their Code Club. Next, they’ll use Scratch to build a simple scrolling game where a player moves around their amazing creations. It’s a fantastic way to turn your ideas and artwork into a playable game.

An illustration showing hands pointing at a digital tablet displaying a green circular shape, surrounded by colorful craft materials and the text 'This is our Code Club — Our flatgame'.

Tips to get started 

  • Creators can work together and share photos. One person could focus on the text and storytelling while another handles the visuals.
  • Break the project into multiple sessions. The first session could be all about discovery and idea generation, including writing stories, drawing, and taking photos. The second session would then be for building the game in Scratch.
  • You could take the photos and upload them as new sprites in a starter project for each group. Creators can then remix the project, duplicate the sprite with all the pictures, and choose the ones they want to use.

What creators will learn

This project is about creativity and self-expression. Creators will learn the workflow of video game design and asset creation, and get to use Scratch to add movement, text, and sound effects.

Our beat | micro:bit

Ready to get musical? Our beat is a hands-on digital music project where you’ll build and code your very own Code Club theme tune! Using the BBC micro:bit and the MakeCode editor, you’ll create melodies, bass lines, and drum loops.

You can start with our unplugged warm-up activity to explore rhythms and sequences without a screen, then use the MakeCode simulator to test out your tunes before bringing them to life on a real micro:bit.

Illustration promoting the 'This is our Code Club - Our podcast' project, featuring a character playing drums, with musical notes and a BBC micro:bit in the background.

Tips to get started

  • Use the MakeCode simulator first to get creators to test and refine their tunes. This is especially helpful if you don’t have enough micro:bits for everyone.
  • Encourage pair programming: one person can write the code while the other suggests melodies or tests the playback. Make sure they swap roles so everyone gets a chance to try both coding and creating music.
  • Begin with a simple melody on one micro:bit, then add more features like play and pause buttons. This progression is built into the project, but managing creators’ expectations will help them see their music evolve instead of trying to do everything at once.

What creators will learn

This project is a great introduction to programming concepts like sequences, loops, variables, and conditional statements. Creators will also explore how radio communication works between devices and learn real-world debugging and problem-solving skills.

Our podcast | AI

Let’s make your club podcast stars! Turn your unique stories into a show that celebrates everything that makes your Code Club special. Play the Scriptville example podcast to get everyone excited and to give them a feel for what they’ll be creating.

Illustration of two children recording a podcast in a colorful setting. One child wears headphones and sits at a computer, while the other raises a hand in excitement. A microphone and sound wave graphics complement the scene.

Tips to get started

  • Start by introducing the concept of podcasts and asking creators what they listen to or if they’ve ever made one.
  • This is a collaborative project. Everyone’s voice will contribute to the final podcast, so there’s no pressure on one person.
  • Encourage them to write about their experiences. Stories about things that have happened in the club make for great listening! They can use the writing prompts to help, and remind them to use only first names in the podcast.

What creators will learn

Creators will learn to work with artificial intelligence (AI) tools and see their potential in new and different ways. By creating and sharing their own podcast, they’ll bring their stories to life and experience the process of collaborative creation, where their individual contributions come together to form a shared outcome. They will work with plain text files, workflows, and organising files, and have experience with digital publishing.

For registered Code Clubs, full details can be found in your inbox. Search for “This is our Code Club”. Not a Code Club? Register today to unlock access to these exclusive projects!

Ready to start creating? Explore the ‘This is our Code Club’ projects and showcase your Code Club story for the rest of the world! We can’t wait to see your projects.

Get your Code Club coding with AI and ML

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are transforming the world around us, and it’s more important than ever for young people to understand this technology. 

By introducing AI and ML concepts in your Code Club, you can equip your members with essential skills for the future, spark their creativity, and empower them to become responsible users of AI technologies.  

Start exploring Code Clubs AI projects 

Code Club’s AI projects make exploring AI and ML a blast. You can learn more about the projects in our ‘Taking your first steps into AI’ blog. With hands-on activities and fun challenges, they’re the perfect way to spark a passion for these exciting technologies.

“The AI learning path gives kids an understanding of the different ways AI fits into our world, whether they’re looking at photo recognition or my favourite project ‘Doodle detector’, where we get to draw and decide what our picture is. All of these feed into how young people understand the way AI works, and getting in early gives them a deep understanding of how that can work to help them in the future, and what to look for so that they don’t get caught out by it.”
– Kaye North, Code Club Australia

Project options for every club

New to AI? Start with the ‘Doodle detector’

If you’re new to AI, the Doodle detector is a great project to start with. You don’t need any special kit, just a computer. Creators draw different objects, then train an ML model to recognise their drawings. It’s a fun way for creators to see for themselves how model training works.

Can the model detect an apple? A banana? A cat? A caterpillar? Gather your Code Club and put it to the test!

Doodle detector

Limited connectivity? No problem!

In our unplugged Dinosaur decision tree project, creators explore how ML models use decision trees to sort things into groups. 

This project uses a paper-based decision tree to classify dinosaurs, but you could classify anything.

Short on time? Create an AI image 

Need a quick and creative activity? Try our ‘AI-generated images’ project and produce amazing AI images with Adobe Firefly. Your creators will learn how to write text prompts and then watch as generative AI brings their creations to life.

This project uses Adobe Firefly, which requires an Adobe ID. You must be 13 or older to register for an individual Adobe ID.

AI-generated project

Got a microphone? Use your voice!

In the Fish food project, creators train an ML model to recognise voice commands and then play a fun fish-feeding game using their commands. You’ll need a microphone for this one. Want to feed a giraffe or a penguin instead? Go for it!

More advanced coders? Level up with a large language model

Your more advanced Code Club creators can learn how to run a large language model on their Raspberry Pi and create a powerful AI assistant using Ollama.

This project is not recommended for learners below the age of 13 and we encourage Code Club creators to engage with this material responsibly.

Prompt a large language model

New AI safety resources 

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released new AI safety resources that equip educators with the tools to empower learners to question AI technologies, think critically, and use AI technologies responsibly. The AI safety resources allow for flexible learning and have been built around three key components: animations, unplugged activities, and discussion questions.

Head to the Code Club projects page to find these projects and more! Don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun. Who knows? Your Code Club might just create the next big thing in AI!

Take your first steps into AI with Code Club’s new toolkit

Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere in the news, and you might be wondering how to introduce this exciting technology to your Code Club creators. With our new AI toolkit, you can explore age-appropriate projects that provide a gentle introduction to AI and machine learning. These projects are designed to inspire and empower young creators, opening the door to a world of fun, hands-on technology experiences.

Two boys standing between a sign that says 'Code Club'.
Bring the exploration into your Code Club!

Code Club is the perfect place for AI exploration

Code Club is a welcoming space where young people can safely and creatively explore coding, digital making, and new technologies, such as the capabilities of AI.

Our AI toolkit is a thoughtfully curated collection of ten short projects, each focusing on a carefully selected AI tool or technique. We’ve considered quality, data security, and the ethics behind AI training, for example, one of the projects uses Adobe Firefly, which is only trained on stock images and openly licensed content. That means peace of mind for you, and that your creators can engage with each tool confidently.

And the best part? You don’t need to be an expert, and neither do your creators! Each project can be tackled independently and requires only basic resources — some use webcams or a Raspberry Pi computer, but others only need a web browser. The toolkit has also been designed with flexibility in mind, so you can select projects that match your club’s available tech and your creators’ interests.

Explore our AI toolkit

Getting started with AI in your Code Club

Whether you’re new to AI or are an experienced AI user, the toolkit is designed so anyone can dive in and create something in just minutes.

Each project includes both a step-by-step tutorial video and text instructions, making it easy to follow along. The projects focus on real-world AI applications like classifiers, facial recognition, and image generation, introducing each concept in a hands-on way. And once creators complete a project, they’re encouraged to customise their work and make it their own — a perfect way to let their creativity shine.

Some project highlights…

Chomp the cheese: This fun project teaches creators to combine image recognition with a webcam, letting them virtually “chomp” floating cheese puffs. It’s easy to customise, too — whether your creators want to catch doughnuts, head a football, or add a scoreboard, they’ll have a blast bringing their ideas to life

Explore facial recognition with ‘Chomp the cheese’ 

Dinosaur decision tree: No computers available? No problem! In this paper-based project, creators build a simple decision tree, mimicking how AI classifiers work. It’s an ideal, hands-on way to understand classification — no tech required!

Create a paper-based decision tree

Dance detector: If your creators love to move, this is the project for them! By combining a micro:bit with machine learning, creators can predict and classify dance moves. It’s a perfect mix of tech and active fun.

Dance-off with machine learning!

What do our testers think?

At a recent training event for youth leaders, 77% of participants who tried the projects said that they felt confident about using them with young people in their Code Club. 

And here’s what some of our younger testers had to say:

“I really liked the projects. I now understand AI more :)”

“AI generators are annoyingly inaccurate, but also really fun to mess around with.”

With the new AI toolkit, you have everything you need to introduce AI to your Code Club. Give it a try and watch your creators’ creativity and confidence grow as they explore the endless possibilities of AI.