CoderDojo Belgium introduces Blender to kids
CoderDojo is a world wide movement that promotes programming for kids. This weekend, their local group in Roeselare, Belgium, is giving a free Blender workshop which aims to introduce them to game development.
Baptiste Ghesquiere writes:Hello everybody,
This weekend, the 21 of December, CoderDojo Belgium will start introducing Blender to its students of the Roeselare division. CoderDojo is a gathering of kids who like to learn how to code, and we normally use SCRATCH from MIT. However in the Roeselare Division, the question came to introduce Unity.
As a Blenderhead this question was nice, and I suggested we start with Blender first, and later on, we will import objects and logic into Unity. My leadcoach was very happy with the idea, and I already gave a Hangout to other coaches about Blender. wich you can find at my Google+ page ( dutch only, sorry )
So, we are going to start with Blender for the older kids first (15-16y) and see what we can make in a 3hour session :-D.
People with good links on Unity and Blender, please post them to my Google+ profile :-)
Links:
www.coderdojobelgium.be
My Google+ profile:
www.google.com/+BaptisteG
This is awesome. I’ve actually taken an active role in teaching my boys Blender and web coding. So it’s great when I see people doing the same with the youth.
I’m actually thinking of starting a video series with my two oldest (8 and 5) on Blender, Inkscape, web coding, etc etc where we work on projects, they ask questions, we crack jokes … stuff like that.
Wow! Were you able to teach your 5 year old Blender? My son is 6, I’ve done a bit of Tinkercad with him so far and was wondering if we should take on Blender.
TEACHING … he’s slowly learning it, but it’s slow going. He loves building things and does soem pretty awesome stuff with his legos. He and his older brother love this stuff. And in their mind, Daddy does it so they want to. They both want to use it to make games, and I’m ok with that.
I guess I’ll have to show them some stuff I made then, first :) Sounds like the right approach.
I have a benefit of having kids addicted to anything with a screen. So I turn on my laptop and they’re glued. So I just start working on stuff and talking what I’m doing. Next thing you know, they understand the basics.
I have been spending time with a 12-year-old successfully doing different things with Blender. He’s created a whole set of furniture for an apartment, and also done short animations.
That sounds great. Did you use any specific material to teach him with?
Not really. We just sat down together and did stuff.
Great work! We’ve been running a 3D animation summer school for 14 – 18 year olds in London (3dami and soon to be Manchester too) over the last two years. Previously I’ve taught it to all ability 11 year olds in a secondary school. They’ll amaze you with how much they can pick up, don’t leave it to the crusty old folk :)
Yeah, in my experience, kids don’t have the fear or failure that many adults have. They just jump in and do it, don’t they?