Spuyten Duyvil library introduces kids to coding

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Eight young children clicked on buttons on their laptop screens and watched animated cartoon characters respond to their commands by jumping, dancing and singing.

The effort was part of a class that the Spuyten Duyvil Library offers in an attempt to stoke children’s interest in computer science. Called introduction to coding, the class introduces students to hands-on interaction with computers and is designed to inspire an interest in coding.

One of the young students, Ivan Alexander Laca Jara, 8, took pride last week in getting a dinosaur character on his screen to dance.

“I did it. I did it. Look. Look. Look. I coded. Look,” Ivan said, with great excitement. “The dino can dance.”

“Great,” two students replied n unison.

“Grrr,” said a third one, making a sound like a dinosaur.

“Look at this one! Look at this one,” fourth student exclaimed, excitedly.

The eight-week class at the library uses the Google CS First program. Students can select icons with commands, such as “move 10 steps” or “turn 15 degrees,” drag the commands into the program’s “script” area and arrange them in a particular order, or type in the words they want the animated characters to say.

“This is, like, once in a lifetime experience,” Ivan said. “I wanted to learn how to be a computer scientist, because I wanted to see another option for science, because I always wanted to be a scientist when I’ve grown up.”

Ivan is taking the class together with his 5-year-old brother Milenko, who said he wanted to take the class so he and Ivan could make their own games.

“I’ve learned how to make characters speak and move and make new characters come into the background,” said 8-year-old, Conor Smyth. “I love coding and I like going on computers and I’ve met new people here, that I’ve…really liked.”

The course is also a hit with Miluska Jara, Ivan’s and Milenko’s mother.

“I think it’s important for them to start to learn that there is something else behind the games because they love to play games on the computer but they don’t know how it works, at least give them an idea that there is a language behind it,” she said.

Ms. Jara said many computer classes for children are costly, and she was grateful to the library for offering the classes for free.

According to Aga Chen, Spuyten Duyvil’s young adult librarian, the course is a collaboration between the New York Public Library and Google.

“We decided to offer it to the kids because all the kids at this branch are very eager to learn things and coding is really popular nowadays,” said Ms. Chen. She added that she hopes students would later learn computer languages and create their own games and programs.

An aspect that Ms. Chen particularly enjoys is seeing “how excited they get when they finish each activity for each class,” she said. “They can see what they built and how characters interact with each other. That’s probably the best part.”

“I am so glad that we can offer it to the kids. They are very eager to learn and they are always asking for more. I already have a list of kids willing to sign up in the winter when we bring [an] additional class,” said Ms. Chen.

Tim Tureski, manager of the Spuyten Duyvil branch, said that courses such as this are part of the library’s initiative to provide more technology-based programming to youth and young adults.

“This is where things are headed for the future,” he said. “Hopefully, kids are having fun but at the same time they’re learning something, maybe one day which will help them in school and maybe give them a leg up in the future when they go on to high school and college.”

The course runs every Thursday until Dec. 22 from 3-5 p.m. This semester’s theme is “Storytelling” and the eight participants will create individual games and cartoons. The library provides laptops for students to use while in class, as well as light refreshments. Participants must register in advance.

For more information, visit the library’s website at www.nypl.org/locations/spuy

Spuyten Duyvil library, Ivan Alexander Laca Jara, Milenko Jara, Conor Smyth, Miluska Jara, Aga Chen, Tim Tureski, Google CS First, coding, New York Public Library, NYPL, Lisa Herndon

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