Everyone can hack to make our communities better!
Workshops for kids are offered during the hackathon. Holyoke Codes is offering a Scratch workshop and a Minecraft workshop and Amherst Media is bringing a Makerspace!
Kids attending workshops should be able to work relatively independently or come with a parent. Please indicate during registration if your kids are planning to attend the workshops. Space is limited!
Please get in touch if you have any questions or would like more information.
Youth activities for 2015 include:
Scratch Workshop
Saturday, June 6 // 10:00am – 12:00pm
In this step-by-step workshop we’ll be building our own video games. If you’ve ever played a computer game you know that they usually follow certain patterns. In this workshop we’ll learn how to build a basic “chase” or “treasure hunt” game. We’ll learn how to design different characters, and how to program some to move on their own and others to move with the keyboard or mouse. We’ll learn how to program what happens when one character “catches” another. At the end, we’ll have a chance to play the games we’ve created!
Makerspace
Saturday, June 6 & Sunday June 7 // All day
Want to learn how to hack hardware? Come play with arduino and lilypad controllers and make stuff with the folks from the Makerspace at Amherst Media! We’ll have a variety of projects for you to experiment with and create your own Internet of Things!
Minecraft Workshop
Sunday, June 7 // 10:00am – 12:00pm
Minecraft is an open-ended, creative game about breaking and placing blocks. Minecraft allows kids to connect and play together, encouraging peer learning and mentoring as kids teach each other about the intricacies of the game while collaborating to complete challenges.
We encourage beginning and advanced players to come to this workshop. Kids will have the opportunity to play with the group on a server with some challenges to complete.
We will ask more experienced players to share something about Minecraft with the group. This could be something they have built, a redstone machine, their favorite mod or texture pack, a useful command or technique for battling monsters, or anything that they think is interesting about Minecraft.
We will help people install mods and interested kids can learn to write their own mods using the Java programming language to customize the game.
Hacking Challenges
Kids with programming or design skills and interest in working on challenges are welcome to join teams at the hackathon to work on projects for our community partners. They may especially be interested in working with other teens on a project to create a website for the Girls Inc Teen Center in Holyoke. More details available on the challenge page here.
Childcare
Some space is still available in the childcare room. Activities will include arts and crafts, stories, and more! Please get in touch if you are interested as space is limited.
