Schlagwort: Moonhack

  • Get ready for Moonhack 2024: Projects on climate change

    Get ready for Moonhack 2024: Projects on climate change

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Moonhack is a free, international coding challenge for young people run online every year by Code Club Australia, powered by our partner the Telstra Foundation. The yearly challenge is open to young people worldwide, and in 2023, over 44,500 young people registered to take part.

    A Moonhack 2024 logo.

    Moonhack 2024 runs from 14 to 31 October. This year’s theme is taken from World Space Week 2024: climate change. As always, the projects cater for everyone from brand-new beginners to more experienced coders. And young people have a chance to win a prize for their submitted project!

    We caught up with Kaye North, Community and Engagement Manager at Code Club Australia, to find out more.

    What to expect from Moonhack in 2024

    For this year’s projects, Kaye told us that she collaborated with farmers, scientists, and young people from across Australia to cover diverse topics related to climate change and space. The projects will help participants learn about topics from how people who work in agriculture use climate data to increase crop yields and practise sustainable farming, to the impact of rising global temperatures on sea life populations.

    An illustration depicting various elements related to the environment and sustainability.

    Kaye also hopes to help young people understand the role of satellite data related to climate change, such as the data NASA collects and shares via satellite. Satellite data on rising sea levels, called out in United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, forms the basis of one of the Moonhack projects this year.

    Moonhack participants will be able to code with Scratch, micro:bit, or Python. They can also take on a project brief where they may choose their favourite programming language and even include physical computing if they wish.

    A computing classroom filled with learners.

    All six projects will be available from 1 September when registration opens, and projects can be submitted until 30 November.

    Inspiring young people to create a better future

    Climate change is an issue that affects everyone, and for many young people it’s a source of concern. Kaye’s aim this year is to show small changes young people can make to contribute to a big, global impact.

    “Moonhack’s question this year is ‘Can we create calls to action through our coding to influence others to make better choices, or even inform them of things that they didn’t know that they can share with others?’” – Kaye North, Code Club Australia

    Moonhack support for volunteers, teachers and parents

    This year’s Moonhack includes new resources to help educators and mentors who are supporting young people to take part:

    Get your young coders involved: Key info

    • Registration for Moonhack 2024 opens on 1 September
    • The challenge runs from 14 to 31 October, and projects can be submitted until 30 November
    • Participation is free and open to any young coder worldwide, whether they are part of a Code Club or not
    • Everyone from beginners to advanced coders can participate
    • The six projects for Moonhack 2024 will be available in around 30 languages

    To find out more, visit the Moonhack website and sign up to the Moonhack newsletter.

    Code Club Australia is powered by the Telstra Foundation as part of a strategic partnership with us at the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

    Website: LINK

  • Get ready for Moonhack 2023: Bringing space down to Earth

    Get ready for Moonhack 2023: Bringing space down to Earth

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Moonhack is a free global, online coding challenge by our partner Code Club Australia, powered by Telstra Foundation. It runs once a year for young learners worldwide. In 2022, almost 44,000 young people from 63 countries registered to take part.

    A young person coding during a Moonhack event.

    This year, Moonhack will happen from 10 to 26 October, to coincide with World Space Week 2023. The challenge is open to all young learners, wherever they are in the world, and features six brand-new projects that focus on space and innovation. We caught up with Kaye North, Community and Engagement Manager at Code Club Australia, to find out more.

    What’s new for 2023?

    Moonhack 2023 offers access to engaging new projects for Scratch, micro:bit, and Python. For the first time ever, young people will also have the option to follow a project brief to code their own solution to a space-based issue, using a programming language of their choice.

    Two children code on laptops while an adult supports them.

    In keeping with this year’s theme — which was inspired by the World Space Week 2023 theme of ‘Space and Entrepreneurship’ — the new Moonhack projects showcase inventions that were created for space exploration but are now used in everyday life, such as mobile phone cameras and LEDs.

    Kaye shared that in Australia, inventions created for space travel and exploration are part of the science curriculum at primary school level. She hopes that this year’s Moonhack will help more young people understand how space exploration and coding are connected to their daily lives.

    What will young people gain from taking part in Moonhack?

    Moonhack features six unique coding projects, giving young people of all ages and experience levels the opportunity to engage and learn. The project brief introduced this year encourages participants to be creative, coding a solution on any platform they choose.

    Young learners coding in a computing classroom.

    Coders who respond to the project brief will also be in with a chance of having their project selected to be developed into an official Code Club Australia project, for other young people and educators around the world to enjoy.

    Kaye emphasised that Moonhack is about more than just taking part in a global event; it also helps young people to better understand the real-world opportunities that coding can offer.

    “The more kids we expose this to, the better, expanding coding past just coding and having purpose behind it. And I do try to link things in so that we’re connecting with real-world context, careers…”

    Kaye North

    How your young coders can get involved

    Registration for Moonhack 2023 is open now. The challenge runs from 10 to 26 October, and projects can be submitted until 30 November. Participation is free and open to any young coder, whether they are part of a Code Club or not. The 2023 projects are already available in English, Arabic, Croatian, Dutch, Filipino, French, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish, and will be available in more languages soon. 

    To find out more and register to take part, visit the Moonhack website.

    Code Club Australia is powered by Telstra Foundation as part of a strategic partnership with us at the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

    Website: LINK

  • Take part in Moonhack 2022: Community, culture, coding

    Take part in Moonhack 2022: Community, culture, coding

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    In 2016, Code Club Australia launched the Moonhack online coding event and broke the world record for the most children coding in one day. Then in 2017 they broke the record again. By now, more than 150,000 young learners from 70 countries have participated in Moonhack.

    A girl with a laptop in a space station replica.
    Moonhack inspires young people to celebrate humans’ technological achievements through fun coding projects.

    Moonhack is an online coding challenge for young learners and celebrates humans’ technological achievements. The 2022 event takes place from 10 to 23 October to coincide with World Space Week, and it features six brand-new projects that show how satellites can help us live more sustainably. We caught up with Kaye North, Community and Engagement Manager at Code Club Australia, to find out more.

    What will this year’s Moonhack bring? 

    Kaye developed this year’s projects across Scratch, micro:bit, and Python to cater for learners with all levels of coding experience. One project was designed in collaboration with astrophysicist Dr Brad Tucker from the Australian National University. Another project highlights that objects in the sky have been meaningful for humans since way before the advent of modern satellites. Kaye developed this project together with a community in the Torres Strait.

    The earth seen from space, with a satellite in view.
    By coding a project in this year’s Moonhack, young people will learn about satellites.

    “The Torres Strait is a unique part of Australia off the tip of Queensland,” Kaye told us. “It’s this amazing group of islands. As a teacher I taught there for three years and learned a lot about the community’s culture.” When a colleague suggested a project about Tagai — a constellation central to Torres Strait Islander culture — Kaye jumped at the chance to work with the island community again.

    The Tagai constellation of Torres Strait Islander culture.
    One of this year’s Moonhack projects teaches about Tagai, a constellation central to Torres Strait Islander culture.

    Kaye initially intended to work with a Torres Strait elder, “but that really snowballed. I had two days at a Tagai school, where the cultural teacher shared his story about the Tagai constellation. I worked with a Year 6 class, coding and putting ideas together, creating this one amazing project. And as we were pulling it together, one of the girls said ‘We need to put our language into it, we should be able to speak in it.’ And that’s where the idea of having the kids’ voices in the project came from.”

    What will young learners gain from taking part in Moonhack?

    Moonhack 2021 had over 25,000 participants, and Kaye wants to share the Tagai project with as many people in 2022. When we asked her what else she hopes young people take away from Moonhack this year, she said:

    “I hope that people really get the connection to satellites in space and how these are going to influence us fulfilling the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. I really hope that comes through. Big picture though? That the kids have fun.”

    Moonhack 2022 runs from 10 to 23 October and is free and open to any young coder, whether they are part of a Code Club or not. The projects are already available in English, French, Dutch, and Greek. Arabic and Latin American Spanish versions are in preparation.

    To take part with your young people, register on the Moonhack website.

    Code Club Australia is powered by Telstra Foundation as part of a strategic partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

    Website: LINK

  • Moonhack 2018: reaching for the stars!

    Moonhack 2018: reaching for the stars!

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Last year, Code Club Australia set a new world record during their Moonhack event for the most young people coding within 24 hours. This year, they’re hoping to get 50000 kids involved — here’s how you can take part in this interstellar record attempt!

    Moonhack 2018 Code Club Raspberry Pi

    Celebrating the Apollo 11 moon landing

    Nearly 50 years ago, humankind took one giant leap and landed on the moon for the first time. The endeavour involved an incredible amount of technological innovation that, amongst other things, helped set the stage for modern coding.

    Apollo 11 moon landing

    To celebrate this amazing feat, Code Club Australia are hosting Moonhack, an annual world record attempt to get as many young people as possible coding space-themed projects over 24 hours. This year, Moonhack is even bigger and better, and we want you to take part!

    Moonhack past and present

    The first Moonhack took place in 2016 in Sydney, Australia, and has since spread across the globe. More than 28000 young people from 56 countries took part last year, from Syria to South Korea and Croatia to Guatemala.

    This year, the aim is to break that world record with 50000 young people — the equivalent of the population of a small town — coding over 24 hours!

    Get involved

    Taking part in Moonhack is super simple: code a space-themed project and submit it on 20 July, the anniversary of the moon landing. Young people from 8 to 18 can take part, and Moonhack is open to everyone, wherever you are in the world.

    The event is perfect for Code Clubs, CoderDojos, and Raspberry Jams looking for a new challenge, but you can also take part at home with your family. Or, if you have access to a great venue, you could also host a Moonhackathon event and invite young people from your community to get involved — the Moonhack team is offering online resources to help you do this.

    On the Moonhack website, you’ll find four simple, astro-themed projects to choose from, one each for Scratch, Python, micro:bit, and Gamefroot. If your young coders are feeling adventurous, they can also create their own space-themed projects: last year we saw some amazing creations, from a ‘dogs vs aliens’ game to lunar football!

    Moonhack 2018

    For many young people, Moonhack falls in the last week of term, so it’s a perfect activity to celebrate the end of the academic year. If you’re in a part of the world that’s already on break from school, you can hold a Moonhack coding party, which is a great way to keep coding over the holidays!

    To register to take part in Moonhack, head over to moonhack.com and fill in your details. If you’re interested in hosting a Moonhackathon, you can also download an information pack here.

    Website: LINK