Fun Techtivities in December!

As 2020 comes to an end, we bring you 5 tech-activities for everyone to enjoy and celebrate the holiday season – be it in the comfort of your home or out with your family and friends. Join us as we present to you the coolest tech goodies and events we have searched high and low across the web, just for you.

Christmas on a Great Street

One of the first things that come to mind this season would be the dazzling light displays at Orchard Road. The Great Street goes VIRTUAL this year, with an amazing 360-degree view from a car through the entire 3.6km stretch – complete with Christmas music in the background. The best part? Everyone in the family can enjoy it and you can view it from anywhere in the world!

Details:
From now till 1 January 2021
Online
Price: Free
To find out more, click here.


SFF x SWITCH 2020

For parents interested in FinTech and Innovation, this one’s for you. SWITCH stands for Singapore’s Week of Innovation and TeCHnology, and one ticket will give you virtual access to both SWITCH and Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF). Over 5 days, get access to workshops, exhibitions, masterclasses and speakers from industry leaders all over the world (eg. Hyundai, Spotify, Facebook, Google, and more). It’s the world’s largest digital showcase of FinTech and deep tech offerings.

Details:
7 December – 11 December 2020
Online
Price: From $75 (Access to SWITCH and SFF)
To find out more, click here.


Christmas Wonderland

Gardens By The Bay is back with the seventh rendition of Christmas Wonderland – this time, ONLINE! The Virtual Wonderland is packed with interactive content, performances, giveaways, shopping and games, which is perfect for a great time with the family! Aside from the usual Christmas Wonderland fare, there are also giveaways, contests, Limited Edition plush bears, a video call with Santa, and more. But Mac users be warned, the Virtual Wonderland is only available as a Windows desktop app (for now).

Details:
From now till 31 December 2020
Online
Price: From $8
To find out more, click here.


Trick Eye Museum’s XR Museum App

Singapore’s Trick Eye Museum expands beyond ordinary 3D art and now incorporates graphics and Augmented Reality (AR) with the power of smartphones. Dive deeper into the stories behind each Trick Eye artwork as they come to life through the XR Museum app. Fight sea monsters, go on adventures, and more!

Details:
Waterfront@Resorts World Sentosa
(Tip: Reserve timeslots in advance and purchase tickets online for 20% OFF)
Price: From $17
To find out more, click here.


Christmas Coding Workshops

This Christmas Eve, experience the joy of Scratch and Python from the comfort of your home! Children and teens aged 7 to 18 can create a Christmas pong game or code a snowflake in our 2-hour coding workshops. To sign up, click here.
P.S. Parents are welcomed to join in the coding cheer and fun!

Details:
24 December 2020
Online
Price: $35 (+$2.45 GST)
To find out more, click here.


Here’s a bonus. Looking to stay home instead? The Science Centre Singapore has curated fun, hands-on activities that would expose Primary, Secondary and the General Public to the syllabus covered in school. Ready, Steady, Science! Download the resources on their website here.

The Coding Lab team wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🙂

If you haven’t seen our previous techtivity recommendations, check out our November #TechtivitiesOfTheMonth, which includes opportunities to meet our cute furry friends and to make a positive impact on the environment around us – all with technology!

(Written by Lakshmi Suresh)


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Our previous Did You Know? from our Young Computer Scientists (YCS) series let many of you wow your friends with your knowledge. We heard you! We have decided to bring back more fun facts – this time from our Advanced Computer Scientists series.

Our ACS student having fun in class!
Our ACS student having fun in class!

In the P21S Advanced Computer Scientists (ACS) course, our 10-to-12-year-olds can collect 12 different badges. Each badge allows them to delve into diverse fields of application for coding, from UI/UX design experience to Game Development and Math, just to name a few.

Turtle Race by Emily, 12, Advanced Computer Scientists
Turtle Race by Emily, 12 years old
Space Invaders by Luciano, 12, Advanced Computer Scientists
Space Invaders by Luciano, 12 years old

The ACS programme spans three main types of learning – Hardware-Based, Syntax-Based and App Development. Upon completion, our students would have had hands-on experience with bots and be well-versed in writing real-world apps and programs that they can use to help others.

Photo of ACS Class
Our curious Advanced Computer Scientists trying out in-class activities

Without further ado, check out these 3 ‘Did You Know’ facts that we share with our ACS students in our award-winning curriculum – and make sure to pass on the knowledge to others! 😉

1. Role Playing Games

What defines a Role Playing Game (RPG)? It is a game where a player takes on the role of a fictional character in a fictional world – fantasy being the common thread. Most RPGs have character growth and advancement, coupled with an entrancing plot that immerses players into the lore and the world of the game [1]. A good RPG is balanced, will keep gamers hooked for hours, and leave a lasting impression.

For the more mature gamers out there (like your parents, teachers, and maybe even yourself), big names like Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, World of Warcraft, and more old school games come to mind when they think of RPGs. Now, we have more recent or remastered titles such as the new Doom, Divinity Original Sin 2, Monster Hunter: World and The Witcher 3.

Snapshot of Online HBL class
Snapshot of Online Home-Based Learning class for ACS

In Python Choose Your Own Adventure, our ACS students learn about RPGs. They get to code their character creation, equipment upgrades and boss fights. Classes also touch on game design topics, like balancing their games. This refers to tweaking a game to be interesting, deep, and fair [2]. Game balance affects battles and a person’s progression in a game.

Imagine being stuck on the tutorial and unable to level up? What about reaching the maximum level in 2 hours and there is nothing else for you to do? RPGs with the level and experience system usually make starting levels easier to level up and almost impossible at higher levels. Without balance, people will quickly get bored of the game.

2. Global Positioning System

When modelling an app after Healthy 365, our ACS students learn about UI/UX design and tap on the many different sensors found in our phones. Do you know how our phones are able to find our location or track our number of steps?

We’ve all heard of GPS. The Global Positioning System (GPS) used to be a satellite-based radio navigation system owned by the United States government [3]. When the project was initiated, the 24-satellite system became fully functional in 1993 and was used to perform trilateration to pinpoint your exact location on Earth. Trilateration measures distance. Your position would be determined by the intersection of multiple intersections of GPS signals [4].

When it comes to tracking our steps, Abraham Louis Perrelet is the brilliant mind behind the pedometer [5]. Through the years, multiple improvements have been made to the pedometer. From the ancient versions using mechanical switches to the current day’s implementation with Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors and sophisticated software.

3. Quiz Gameshow

Come on down, it’s time for the quiz gameshow! Our ACS students get to code their own quizzes and learn more about programming, such as extensibility and the incremental build model. We also include fun facts, like this one… Legend has it that “quiz” is actually a very recent word created in the late 1700s. The story behind the word is a bizarre one and here is how it goes.

A wager was made in 1791 by Richard Daly in Dublin. He wagered that within 48 hours he could make a nonsense word be spoken throughout Dublin, one with no meaning and not derived from any language. He sent his employees to go around Dublin chalking the word “Quiz” everywhere and soon this word became the talk of the town which meant that Daly won the bet and this caused the word to become commonly used.

Of course, this story is not 100% factual and there are many sources that dispute the truth of this story [6]. So for now, let’s just say this is a folktale – and an interesting one too.

Our ACS student exploring the course
Our ACS student exploring the course

Now that you’re armed with all of this cool information, spread the joy of learning by sharing this with your friends and family! 

Come onboard our Advanced Computer Scientists’ programme – where we help to build your child’s aspiration of becoming the next future leader in technology!

(Written by Cheryl Tang)


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How do our Python Heroes perfect their craft? In our Python Perfect classes (S101P, S111P and S121P), we utilise an individualised learning method to ensure that students are able to fully internalise and apply the concepts that they have learnt. 

Coding Lab’s S100P is a series of Python Perfect classes taken by students who have completed the respective core foundational classes (Python 1: S101, Python 2: S111 and Python 3: S121). These classes ultimately promote independent studying and reinforce core programming concepts.

You might be wondering: what exactly is individualised learning?

Image of S100P class

The key ingredient of it is the shift of responsibility for the learning process from the tutor to the student [1]. The entire process involves students acquiring an understanding of their learning, being motivated to learn, and collaborating with tutors to structure their learning environment. Our students’ progress therefore depends on how motivated they are in learning and how much they want to achieve.

This method of learning does not mean that students are to work alone – tutors have a huge part to play as mentors in enabling and supporting individualised learning. They ensure that students are on the right track, motivate them and continually ignite their passion for coding through the wonders of S100P.

How do our teens benefit from Individualised Learning?

Our Python Heroes in our S100P series of classes hone their Python power with lab work. This lab work mimics practical modules in universities (which make up a high percentage of the overall grade!) – so if you’re looking to take on computing or Python in university, it’s important to get started early and lay those firm foundations! Our tutors also provide term reports for students to refer to so that they can better understand the areas they need to improve on and work towards nailing those concepts down. 

Every Python Perfect class has 10 levels of coding challenges – and each student will be mentally stimulated by the challenges at their individual levels. Our coding challenges hail from a wide variety of domains ranging from Banking and Finance to Engineering, Mathematics and even Medicine, enabling students to appreciate the applicability of Python in the real world

Students can advance as quickly as possible on their own with the effort that they put in, and also have 24/7 access to our online system to submit their answers to practice questions. Afterwards, our keen tutors will grade their questions and guide them in achieving code efficiency during class. 

Students can submit their answers any time on our online system!
Image of Python Perfect class
Always an enjoyable time in our S100P class!

“Another part of Python that I really enjoyed was Python Perfect which was basically coding challenges. I would work on different challenges each week, to devise a solution to the problems. I really enjoyed it and that kept my interest sustained.”

– Josephine, 14, Raffles Girls’ School

Our Python Perfect courses typically span across 40 hours (2 Terms of Weekly classes: 20 x 2 hours). Most students are mainly able to complete 6 levels in 40 hours, but there are also very dedicated students who fast tracked 10 levels in 6 hours – like Wang Chen! Here’s what he has to say about our classes:

“The classes are engaging and I was able to learn things like Stack Overflow, which further added on to my coding knowledge!”

– Wang Chen, 14, Dunman High

(successfully completed 10 levels of coding challenges in 6 hours!)

As students level up, the challenges gradually get more difficult. Our experienced Python Perfect tutors will help students to reach their fullest potential through giving out hints, providing them with help and guiding them through what they’re struggling with. A signature trademark of the program is that students are not given answers, they are encouraged to find the answers to the challenges on their own, enabling full understanding and application of concepts, self-confidence and independent learning.

Image of Ryan and class
Ryan (top left) with his Python students in an online class.

“In Python Perfect classes, students have to apply what they have learnt from the Python courses into the coding challenges. The more they practice, the better they get at coding! I’d often challenge my students to pen out their strategy before coding. I’d get them to go back to the basics and ensure the students revisit the fundamentals and thoroughly understand them.”

– Ryan Wong, Educator



Coding Lab believes that individualised learning will help in cultivating a spirit of lifelong learning in students – not only do our Python Perfect classes help students self-study the core programming concepts – it also reminds them that they are responsible for their own learning. When students own their learning, it sticks with them! 

Begin your Python journey by clicking here!

(Written by Zulaikha)


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