Ken Whelan from the CoderDojo Coolest Projects implementation team met with Aaron and his father Barry. Aaron is a member of CoderDojo Sallins & Naas.
Ken : Hi Aaron, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Aaron: My name is Aaron. I like playing video games and playing outside with friends.
Ken: How did you get involved in CoderDojo?
Aaron: I can’t remember …ask my dad? 🙂
Barry : We had tried a few sports and different clubs but Aaron struggled with the competitiveness so after hearing about CoderDojo from an “old” friend we found the nearest one. It was a 40 minute drive away but we dropped along (with his older sisters laptop) and he loved it from the get-go! He started using scratch, you ask it to do something, the sprite does it….change what you ask, it changes what happens….logic!
Ken: What do you like about going to CoderDojo?
Aaron : I like to do coding!
Ken: That’s great! Do you know about the CoderDojo Coolest Projects Awards?
Aaron: I know about it. It is on in June in the RDS in Dublin and I am really looking forward to it.
Ken: Can you tell us about your Coolest Project?
Aaron: It’s called Food Attack. You catch fruit and avoid the bad stuff. It has 3 levels, breakfast, lunch and supper and they are slow, medium, fast levels. You lose if you eat 3 bad stuff and win if you get 30 good stuff. If I have time I want to also show off my Minecraft Mario Adventure Map on the day!
Ken: I have to say that sounds pretty awesome! Are you excited about presenting your project?
Aaron: I am really excited about everything that’s going to happen…showing my game and seeing other peoples projects, seeing the Minecraft server! My family and my assistance dog, Mundy, will come with me.
Ken: Did you know that we will have a special chill out area for our CoderDojo ninjas that need a quiet space?
Aaron: I’m a ninja?! I might wear my karate suit….or just my belt maybe. The chill out area will be for kids with autism that need a break and I will bring a book (either How To Train My Dragon series or a Minecraft book….probably Minecraft!). My chill out space at home has calm music and a beanbag. Can everyone use the chill out space?
Ken: Yes, the chill out space will be for all our cool coders that need to take a break from the excitement and relax in a cool environment. We have quite a few CoderDojo ninjas on the Autism Spectrum and with other special needs so we want to have somewhere for them to relax. We’ll have some beanbags and nice lighting and some other things to make a cool and relaxing space.
Thank you so much Aaron and Barry for talking with me and I can’t wait to see your Coolest Project and meet Mundy the coolest assistance dog!