A television, a remote-controlled car, a washing machine, a mobile phone. All of these have needed coding. This was the starting point for observing our surroundings and thinking about why coding is an important and useful skill. Nine children aged 9 to 11 took part in the Koodikoulu coding school organised by Finnos in July 2019.
The theme of this year's coding school was hardware-oriented coding. During the day, the theory of coding was covered under the guidance of Finnos software developer Samu Tiainen. After that, small computers were built, and towards the end of the day the children got to program them. The goal of the programming was to make LED lights turn on at the press of a button.
"We need people who can program low-level computers, in other words automation engineers. We set out to take responsibility by setting up Coding School 2," comments Jere Heikkinen, headmaster of the coding school (also known as the CEO of Finnos).
The coding school was held for the first time in the summer of 2018, when the topic was coding video games. The event received a lot of positive feedback at the time, so Finnos decided to continue the tradition.
Satisfied faces could be seen among the coding school participants as their own code started to work and the lights came on. Some were inspired to try their own solutions in addition to the examples done together, and got the lights blinking at different speeds. It came as a surprise to many how many lines of code are needed just to turn on a few lights.
Finally, the coding school pupils held a tournament with the computers built earlier in the day, testing reaction speed. The winners of the competition were rewarded, and everyone received a certificate and a medal for taking part in the coding school. In addition to their self-programmed computer, the children took home plenty of new knowledge and skills, and perhaps a spark to continue coding in the future.
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