Our nation’s birthday is coming up, and it is a time that our family can celebrate and have fun! We have some techtivities lined up for you, so the whole family can have fun and learn about the wonder of technology at the same time. 😄
Let’s first hear some #TechNews!
With over 180 different types of mosquito species in Singapore, it is challenging to eradicate disease-spreading mosquitoes. 🦟 However, with the power of A.I, GovTech has successfully created a model that could “not only correctly classify species from different groups, but also differentiate seemingly lookalike species from the same group”! 👨💻 Read more about it here!
Now that we’re all set, keep scrolling on to discover techtivities that you and your family can indulge in this month! ✨
Singapore Night Festival 2023
The annual Singapore Night Festival is back at Bras Basah.Bugis Precinct! Showcasing Singapore’s growth from a small port city to a modern metropolis, there are various installations, unique experiential activities, and for the first time, a family zone with activities for children hosted by the Children’s Museum Singapore. 🥳
What tech is here? 🤔 🧑💻 See Augmented Reality (AR) in action as you whip out your phone to explore the secrets behind installations like GIIFEST III: Imperfect Compilation! 🤳
🧑💻 Experience the power of projection mapping as you view various light installations projected onto different features like buildings and even the trees! 🌴
🧑💻 Immerse your senses in lights, colours and sounds carefully timed and programmed to work beautifully in harmony! 🎶
Details: When: 18 – 26 August 2023
Where: Bras Basah.Bugis Precinct
Price: Free
Learn more here.
Changi Experience Studio
Want to discover the world right in the heart of our top-ranked airport? Explore the exciting virtual world of Changi Airport through 10 different zones at Changi Experience Studio @ JEWEL. Experience the wonder of technology as you learn more about aviation and how the airport operates! ✈️
What tech is here? 🤔 🧑💻 Want to be a pilot? Take flight through the Aeroviation Flight Simulator while staying planted on the ground! 🧑✈️
🧑💻 Be the fastest in the virtual race at the Amazing Runway as it senses your peddling speed! 🚲
🧑💻 How to be a successful airport? Play games at the Backstage zone as you control the running of the airport through various sections like baggage control, immigration and plane parking with the screen! 🛫🛬
Details: When: Permanent
Where: JEWEL Changi Airport
Price: From $12.75 (with current promotions as of 28 July 2023)
Learn more here.
Singapore Navy Museum
Is your little one interested in the seas? Let them explore the Singapore Navy Museum, where they can learn about how the Singapore Navy has become the modern force it has today!
What tech is here? 🤔 🧑💻 Learn interesting facts through interactive boards that will activate with your actions! 😄
🧑💻 Interested to try out your own gun? A huge gun display has been set up where your little ones can sit and move the gun! 🔫
🧑💻 Want to thank our Singapore Navy for what they have done? Simply hover your hand over the interactive board and it will send a message through Sensing Technology! 🤗
Details: When: Permanent
Where: 112 Tanah Merah Coast Road
Price: Free (for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents – $8 for tourists and foreigners)
Learn more here.
September Holiday Coding Camps
An exciting adventure awaits this September! 📢
Calling all young tech enthusiasts, this is your time to shine! 🌟 In our September Holiday Coding Camps, join us for an unforgettable experience and challenge yourself to create your best project ever! Jump into game development and code a game with features of your choice, or create innovative mobile apps from scratch – Unleash your creativity and gain lifelong skills to cherish for life! 😎
What tech is here? 🤔
🧑💻 Ages 5-6: Discover the fun with your new robot friend as you bring him on adventures and conquer challenges together.
🧑💻 Ages 7-9: Done Scratch in school? We go beyond that! Expand your coding abilities and discover all that you can create – Add exciting features into your games such as creating time challenges, tracking your high scores, and many more! 👾
🧑💻 Ages 10-12:Create your very own version of your favourite mobile apps in our App Inventor classes and learn all about App Design and User Interface! Join us in our Python Junior classes and create ingenious programs with fun challenges as you go along! 📱💻
🧑💻 Ages 13-18: Get the best headstart in coding in our extensive curriculum for teens! Dive into the top 5 global programming platform, Python, and pick up key coding concepts with challenges relevant in today’s society. 🌎
Take your pick, because whatever your choice is, we’re sure your child will have loads of fun in our classes! 😎 💚
With so many options for both beginners and the initiated, and various physical and online options, there’s definitely a class suitable for everyone! Sign up here or feel free to drop us an email, call us or WhatsApp us to get in touch. 😊
Psst! You can apply the discount code ‘CODEHANGOUT’ to get *12% discount when signing up in a group of 3 or more! Slots are running out quickly so secure a timeslot of your choice for your child today! 😉
*When stacked with Early Bird Discount
Details: When: 4 to 8 September 2023
Where: Online, Parkway Parade, Bukit Timah (KAP Mall)
Price: From $401.52
To wrap up our #TechtivitiesOfTheMonth, here is a fun #TechFact! Did you know that the first ever computer virus, Creeper, was created in 1971? When a computer catches the virus, the screen displays the message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!”
However, unlike the viruses and malware today, Creeper was not sent out with malicious intent, it was created for experimental purposes, to show that it was possible to create a self-duplicating program! (Source)
If you haven’t seen our previous techtivity recommendations, check out our July #TechtivitiesOfTheMonth, which includes more cool tech-related activities you can do with friends and family!
(Written by Thinzar)
Best-in-class Curriculum for Coding
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We’re in the Fourth Industrial Revolution where everything technology is found in every aspect of our lives, and the digital world is now our children’s playground. Everything we see around us is being automated, for instance, that chatbot you’re typing to or the ordering kiosks at your favourite bubble tea shop. Isn’t it exciting that our children get to be part of something like Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?
While technology has many benefits, it also has its pitfalls. So, how do we ensure that our children benefit from the use of technology? How do you, as parents, create a safe and fun environment and prepare your children to learn about the world around them and help them to form healthy digital habits?
Learning and Playing With Technology
Our Junior Coders play with Photon the Robot during class while learning all about computational thinking.
What better way to get to know technology better than by engaging your little ones through play?
Using tech toys is one way. Since 2015, the Infocomm Media and Development Authority has been developing the PlayMaker programme to introduce tech toys to preschool centres to enrich preschoolers’ learning experiences. Scratch Junior, Bee-Bot and the KIBO Robotics kit were some of the tech toys introduced.
Educational apps have also been making waves as a way for children to be productive and make the most of their time outside of school. The Coding Lab Team previously covered the Top 5 Educational STEM Games for Children that you can check out! Such screen time goes a long way in helping our little ones learn.
Workshops and classes are also available for children to learn about technology through play. For example, art is no longer limited by the physical world. There are digital art courses and various digital platforms that encourage creativity and design these days. We also encourage our students to get drawing in their coding classes to create gorgeous backdrops on Scratch or the coolest characters on App Inventor!
Whether they are physical tech toys, apps or classes and workshops, it’s important to choose the right ones to kickstart your child’s tech journey and nurture their digital habits.
3 Ways to Nurture Your Child’s Digital Habits
While there is a whole trove of resources on the internet, there are also online threats, cyberbullying, fake news, issues of privacy and more. It is important for our children to use the internet with due diligence as anything posted online lasts forever. How should you guide your child through their digital journey so that they become responsible digital citizens? We compiled key tips from the Media Literacy Council here:
1. Educate Yourself
Know the ratings of movies, games, shows and videos that your children interact with.
Play their favourite games with them! It serves as quality time together too.
Encourage them to play in common areas like the living room.
2. Set Up Parental Control and Safe Search Settings
Ensure that the online world they interact with is already safe with Parental Controls. Not sure where to start? We’ve got our list of Top 5 Parental Control Software for more advanced settings or you can toggle web browser settings to restrict the websites that your child visits. Additionally, minimise exposure to violent or sexual content that have been flagged as inappropriate for children with Safe Search Settings on Google, Yahoo and YouTube.
MacBooks, PCs and web browsers can restrict what kinds of websites your children can visit.
Game consoles like Xbox and PlayStation control whether players have chat or video function.
Games like Minecraft have private servers so that you know who your children are playing with.
Sit down, talk to your children and draw up a screen time contract. This becomes an agreement between you and your child, instead of the imposition of rules.
Set boundaries and agree on how much time they can spend online for entertainment purposes.
Spell out the consequences of not sticking to the rules.
Create consistency by having a regular routine on how your children use technology.
So, what can parents do?
For those of us with younger children, you might be wondering how much time should your child be spending online and what you can do. We’ve compiled a set of guidelines below from an expert at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital to help you navigate through this journey in introducing your child to tech.
We hope that you’ve learnt some useful tips about guiding your children’s digital habits! Here at Coding Lab, we strive to nurture future leaders in technology, equip them with digital skills and take steps to become digitally literate through our coding classes for Ages 5 to 18. Kickstart your child’s technological journey the right way with our fun-filled, MIT-inspired and award-winning coding curriculum today!
Curious and hungry for more tips? Head over to the Media Literacy Council’s website! They have more resources on data protection, fake news and much more for everyone, including parents, youths and even seniors.
(Written by Zulaikha and Nicole Loo, Edited by Cheryl Tang)
Best-in-class Curriculum for Coding
We are honoured to be the winner of multiple awards.
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Coding Lab’s annual International Coding Showcase (ICS) is a collaboration with Coding Lab Japan, designed to provide a platform for our students aged 7 to 18 to present their remarkable coding projects. Our students get the opportunity to showcase their own exceptional projects, done in Scratch, App Inventor or Python, and share their brilliance with a global audience. This not only helps our budding coders gain confidence, but also paves the way for them to build a robust coding portfolio, preparing them early for a successful future in today’s digital age. The resounding success of ICS 2022 transcended borders as we proudly featured Coding Lab students from all over the world, from Singapore and Japan to Germany, Indonesia and the United States!
Our students take pride in their solid coding foundation and enriched knowledge gained from our MIT-inspired coding classes. They have poured their hearts and souls into their projects, and their extraordinary submissions left an indelible impression on our esteemed panel of judges! We proudly present an exclusive blog feature highlighting the achievements of our top Distinction winners from ICS 2022. These students not only secured the prestigious top award, but also gained the opportunity to have their superb work featured on our very own Coding Lab YouTube channel, captivating the attention of viewers from all across the globe!
Let us embark on an inspiring journey to learn more about our students’ coding journey and watch their amazing project submissions!
David Xu
7 years old, Singapore
Distinction and Judges’ Choice (Best Presentation) Award, Young Computer Scientists (Ages 7-9)
Hobbies: Reading, playing the piano and I also enjoy coding when I am allowed to use the computer in my free time!
How did you start coding? I followed in the footsteps of my older brother who is also a coder. I started coding with Scratch when I was in Primary 1!
Why did you join ICS 2022? I thought it would be fun to try and I had an idea to develop a game to help children learn science.
What’s your biggest takeaway from ICS 2022? Getting the chance to code with purpose! I enjoyed debugging because when I finally get it right, I feel very proud of myself!
What is your favourite thing about coding and Coding Lab? The teachers are very patient and help me learn how to code different things every week. My favourite part about Coding Lab classes is playing with the games I have made.
Future coding aspirations: I am currently taking part in the Minecraft Cup Competition 2023. I am very excited to build my own eco-friendly buildings and automatic farms, and I hope my team wins an award!
Any comments for the readers? I want to encourage all coders to not limit their imagination. Always try to think out of the box!
Nakamura Shinji
9 years old, Singapore
Distinction, Young Computer Scientists (Ages 7-9)
Hobbies: I spend a lot of time on coding. If I have more free time, I read comics and non-fiction books about coding.
How did you start coding? My kindergarten offered a robotics lesson. The robotics teacher told my parents that I was exceptionally good because I came up with the best robotics solutions without any guidance from him. My mother then signed me up for free lessons from Smart Nation’s website, where we got to know about Coding Lab. I was extremely keen to learn more about coding, so my mother signed me up for more lessons at Coding Lab!
Why did you join ICS 2022? I wanted to compete with other contestants from Japan and showcase my projects on an international level!
What’s your biggest takeaway from ICS 2022? My ICS project is about a game that takes 5 days to finish. I created this simple game because my younger brother wanted to play computer games, but most games were too difficult for him. This game only requires three keys from the keyboard to play. Through this experience, I also learnt how to edit a video for my presentation, which was very fun. Maybe I can become a YouTuber one day!
What do your family and friends say when they hear that you are a coder? My grandmother is very proud of me. She tells her friends that I won awards for coding. I would like to thank her for the full support that she has given me!
Future coding aspirations: I am planning to create an advanced game that no one can replicate. I am looking forward to mastering other programming languages too!
Any comments for the readers? Follow me on Scratch and look out for my new projects!
Hobbies: I enjoy a variety of activities, like playing basketball, playing Chinese chess and reading books. When I want to unwind, I also play Roblox and Minecraft.
How did you start coding? At the age of 7, I started playing Roblox and was awed by the designs. This inspired me to take up coding so I signed up for my first coding class.
Why did you join ICS 2022? I saw this as an opportunity to challenge myself and find out where I stand in terms of my coding skills. Earning a Distinction Award gave me a rough understanding of my abilities.
What’s your biggest takeaway from ICS 2022? I learnt that determination and perseverance help me through hard times. Finding improvements and flaws in the project while continuously improving it is crucial. The best part of ICS is when I finally used Tkinter to make my Stock Price Retrievers inputs, which has a Graphical User Interface, which is more interactive than just plain text.
What is your favourite thing about coding and Coding Lab? Coding Lab not only trains our coding skills, but also allows us to hone our self-learning abilities and logical-thinking skills! Through the different problems provided, I was prompted to learn and research more about different functions myself, like the “join” function!
Future coding aspirations: I hope to make an entertaining Roblox game one day and also learn to utilise Python to make useful tools. I am interested in a career related to cybersecurity or programming apps in the future.
Any comments for the readers? As a coder, the ability to self-learn is critical for success. Be willing to take on new challenges! Persevere and remain determined when faced with difficult coding problems as this is an essential part of the learning process.
How did you start coding? I attended a class conducted by Coding Lab in 2017 when I was just 6 years old.
Why did you join ICS 2022? I wanted to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone and put what I had learnt to the test.
What’s your biggest takeaway from ICS 2022? Coming across many python functions I did not know of previously, such as “webbrowser”, during my research. I added these new functions I had learnt into my project!
What do your family and friends say when they hear that you are a coder? My family members are very supportive and always encourage me to pursue my dream to be a coder!
Future coding aspirations: I want to be a programmer so I can make a simpler programming language that would help other programmers save time when writing their code!
Hobbies: Reading, coding and playing Minecraft! I also enjoy competing in Math Olympiads and even achieved a Silver in the Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad for Primary Schools Singapore in 2023.
How did you start coding? I started coding when I was 6. My parents sent me to Coding Lab’s holiday camp to learn Scratch. After that, I progressed on to Python when I was 8 or 9!
Why did you join ICS 2022? I wanted to use my coding skills to raise awareness for the Russo-Ukrainian War.
What’s your biggest takeaway from ICS 2022? Being able to make codes that can be used by anyone. My biggest motivation is for people to interact with my projects!
What is your favourite thing about coding and Coding Lab? I am pushed out of my comfort zones to solve problems such as bugs, formatting, and even in language.
Future coding aspirations: I aspire to be a mathematician or a quantum physicist. I hope that my coding skills can be applied in these fields to solve real-world problems, for the good of humanity!
Any comments for the readers? Try your best and when in doubt, Google is your best friend.
Hobbies: When I am free, I normally play video games or listen to music. Sometimes, I also interest myself in some personal coding projects. For example, I’ve been working on a new programme that simulates the basic levels of the economy in real life. Using Python, I’ve created what I call the “economy simulator”, where users can run certain commands within the programme to change the economy!
How did you start coding? I started coding when I was Primary 2, with my first programming language being Scratch. From there, I moved on to Python and other programming languages.
Why did you join ICS 2022? I wanted to test my capabilities and challenge myself to create a programme that would appeal to the outside world. I feel that one of the most important aspects of programming is the readability of the code. Instead of just programmers being able to understand your code, non-programmers should also be able to.
What’s your biggest takeaway from ICS 2022? The ability to communicate with confidence. I was nervous during the presentation, but after a few retakes I mustered up the courage to present confidently and effectively.
What do your family and friends say when they hear that you are a coder? When I first expressed interest in coding, they were shocked. After some time, they enrolled me in coding classes. When I show my family members what I do, they are amazed at how much a few lines of code can do. In fact, one of my main motivations for creating my project is my family. They are my biggest supporters and their unwavering belief that I can win the showcase pushed me on.
Future coding aspirations: I aspire towards a job in computer software programming. I feel that my interests, combined with my current skill set, can tackle the industry’s problems.
Any comments for the readers? Take things step-by-step! When I first started out coding, I was bombarded by multiple problems, like not being able to debug my code. However, I’ve overcome these problems as my knowledge about different programming languages grew, making it easier to solve issues within the code.
Linus Lim Jiarui
14 years old, Singapore
Distinction and Judges’ Choice (Best Presentation) Award, Python (Ages 13-18)
Hobbies: I code, play some computer games and musical instruments.
How did you start coding? Initially, I applied for my school’s infocomm club but got rejected. Instead of giving up, I researched other ways to explore my area of interest and my passion for coding developed from there.
Why did you join ICS 2022? I wanted people to see what I can create with my coding skills and knowledge.
What’s your biggest takeaway from ICS 2022? Filming the presentation video was a new and interesting experience. It was fun making projects related to my areas of interest!
What is your favourite thing about coding and Coding Lab? I like the teachers who are always there to guide me and answer any questions I have.
Future coding aspirations: I want to improve on and optimise my current code while learning more about different topics. In the future, I would like to work in an exciting field in a job related to coding!
Any comments for the readers? The internet is a great place to learn coding. As long as you start somewhere, you are bound to do great things!
The Coding Lab team would like to extend an immense THANK YOU to all our talented students who participated in this event. We appreciate the tremendous effort each and every one of you have dedicated to your projects! Congratulations to all our students for their outstanding achievements, and we look forward to seeing what other innovative projects they will come up with in future! Let us keep the flame of coding alive as we continue to hone our coding skills!
Keep a lookout for our International Coding Showcase 2023, coming soon! Brace yourselves for yet another awe-inspiring showcase of coding excellence!
