Background

While teaching Computing courses to grade 8 and 9 at a local ZPHS, we recognized an opportunity to introduce students to hands-on learning with Python programming language. Young Learners Workshop is an opportunity that translated into reality.

Overview

As part of PyConf Hyderabad 2022, we organized the Young Learners Workshop (YLW) for 18 students from four schools. It was an enriching experience to have all the students visit and engage actively in the micro:bit-based workshop. Cherry on the top was students interacting with the keynote speaker, Sebastián Ramírez, FastAPI creator.

EPAM Systems was a generous host to allow school students access to their corporate premises and offer them food assistance.

Students had a blast during the workshop. They kept the workshop volunteers on their toes with their participation and questions.

Students in the micro:bit workshop Credit: EPAM India

Schools

Not all schools were at the same level. First school had a functioning computer lab but no faculty to teach. Second school was the most equipped with a functioning lab and faculty to teach students. Third school didn’t have a computer lab as it was impacted post COVID to upgrade the infrastructure.

Our task was to ensure students had the necessary initial awareness and information regarding computing, logic, via paper-and-pen exercises along with videos. For the school without computing infrastructure, we drove them to ZPHS (with permission and thanks to the most generous HM Vidyavathi madam) for the two preparatory sessions.

This was a pilot program of YLW. In the next iteration, we would like to onboard more schools and get supportive sponsors. One of the challenges is to ensure infrastructure access to schools wihout access to machines as part of the curriculum. This is the primary reason why we started Collab Place.

Format

The format of the entire workshop is as follows:

  • 2 preparatory sessions
    • We visited schools to cover material during the preparatory sessions including introduction to computing, logic, programming etc.
    • This included paper-and-pen exercises on bitmap, an Internet awareness quiz, binary to decimal conversion (and vice-versa).
  • YLW on 10th December
    • Introduced micro:bit devices to students. They programmed the devices to control it via different sensors during the workshop.
  • 2 follow-up sessions
    • While two schools participated in the follow-up sessions, the other two couldn’t due to their academic schedules.

Credits

I’d like to thank Anand Chitipothu for the initial ideation and his inputs on the workshop format. We are also grateful to him for extending access to the Telegram bot (framework) and for creating Joy library that students used to learn creative coding.

The workshop wouldn’t be possible without the team effort. I’d like to thank:

  • the co-organizers of PyConf Hyderabad, EPAM Systems for their generous support in organizing the workshop.
  • the participating schools (Zilla Parishad High School Mansoorabad, Viswa Bharathi High School, Tejasvi Vidyaranya Jodimetla) and students for being part of the pilot edition workshop. We had a solitary student from another school from our neighborhood who was interested to participate.
  • the volunteers who made a lot possible for the workshop including ensuring working laptops are available, organized handouts as material and doing the two dry-runs prior to the workshop: Harsh, Shivan, ShantiSai, Pragnya, Roy, Kalyan.
  • a few volunteers who contributed by taking preparatory sessions by visiting the schools.

What’s next?

YLW

The next edition of YLW will be held in September 2023. This time, we plan to involve a lot more students; not only from Hyderabad but also from other cities. We are scouting for partners to collaborate on the inter-city YLW initiative.

Interested to volunteer? Please join Zulip and subscribe to R&D workgroup stream.

Interested to sponsor? Please email talk2kish@gmail.com or drop me a message in WhatsApp (8142650099) with your interest to sponsor.

Python Express

I’m working with Anand Chitipothu to revive Python Express, an initiative to bring Python learners and trainers together via a platform. Educational institutions such as colleges and schools, corporate organizations or any organization can sign-up to host the workshops. We aim to bring curated content, trained mentors together for a holistic learning experience.

Follow our website for more details: https://pythonexpress.org/