CodeClub

Club leaders’ quick-fire guide to Coolest Projects!

Coolest Projects online is just around the corner and there’s still time for your Code Club members to go on an adventure with code and share their COOL ideas with the world! 

We want to make sure you have all the support you need to help your coders make their ideas a reality! To help, we called in our friends to share their advice, from getting started with an idea, to testing and reviewing a finished creation. 

Let’s break it down  

Members in your Code Club have developed a super COOL idea, and now they’re ready to start to bring them to life. Raspberry Pi Senior Learning Manager, Allen Heard, shares his advice to help coders break down their idea and get started! 

Test and test again 

Testing your project is a vital step in the coding process. Rohima Crook, Programme Manager for Code Club, talks through ideas to support your curious-coders to test their projects. She encourages members to collaborate with friends and family and to gather feedback on their project. 

There’s a bug in my code! 

During your coders’ testing phase, they may come across a bug! Mark Calleja, Youth Programmes Manager, is here to help your coders use their problem-solving skills to find and fix bugs in their programs.  

Code Club has a helpful debugging poster to guide coders through the different steps. If you’re based in the UK, the USA, or Ireland, head to your dashboard to download. For the rest of the world, you can access the resource via our Code Club international website. 

Time to review 

Stepping back and reviewing your projects is an important detail in taking part in Coolest Projects. Kevin Johnson, North America Program Coordinator, shares his helpful suggestions on the different ways you can support coders to review their project and ensure it meets their initial design brief.

Alongside these bitesize tips, the Coolest Projects team have a host of FREE resources you can use to help your club members take part in this global showcase

Join the global showcase

We’ve seen 39 countries register their COOL ideas for this year’s Coolest Projects online showcase. Young creators have until 3 May to submit their creations and if you need further support, check out the FAQs or send an email to hello@coolestprojects.org. 

Bug in the machine: six top tips for debugging your code

Making mistakes and learning how to solve them is a key part of becoming a coder. Read on to find out about the origins of the word ‘debugging’, and discover our newest resource to help your club members work through troublesome code. 

Programme Coordinator Zoe, holding the new debugging poster against a backdrop of an illustration of a house
Programme Coordinator Zoe, was excited to get her hands on our brand new debugging poster

Making mistakes is a part of learning 

The term ‘bug’ is used to describe a technical problem or mistake in code that stops it from working or behaving as you would expect. Every coder, from total beginners to seasoned experts, will have to deal with coding bugs, and it’s important to know the different approaches that you can take to fix them. 

‘Debugging’ is the term given to the process of working through your code to find and fix your mistake. Many things can cause bugs, from incorrect logic, to syntax errors, or even something as small as a missed comma. 

Bug in the machine 

The term ‘debugging’ is often attributed to U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, a computer programming pioneer. In September 1947, Admiral Hopper was working with a team at Harvard on the Mark II computer, when they found an issue in one of the computer’s relays: a small, unobtrusive moth. As the moth was removed and taped into their research logbook, Admiral Hopper is said to have remarked that the team was ‘debugging’ the system. And so, the term was born — or so the story goes!

Whatever its initial origins, today, ‘debugging’ is a term used by programmers all over the world. 

Get debugging in your Code Club! 

We’ve created a new poster to help your Code Club members to debug their code. The poster explains what a bug is, and gives six top tips for Code Club members to try if they find a bug in their code: 

An image of the debugging poster, featuring spiders.
  • Check the project instructions — Have you followed the steps correctly? 
  • Read your code out loud — Does this highlight anything that is obviously wrong? 
  • Find the last time when your project worked — Can you isolate which part of your code is broken? 
  • Show your Code Club leader — Can your club leader help find which bit of your code isn’t working? 
  • Ask a friend — Get another pair of eyes to check your code! 
  • Stay calm and keep trying new things — The most important thing is to not get frustrated; you’ll find your bug if you keep looking! 

If you’re based in the UK, the USA, or Ireland, head to your dashboard to download your copy of our debugging poster. 

If you’re based outside of the UK, the USA, or Ireland, head to our Code Club international website to download this poster and other resources.