Coolest Projects Sofia 2018

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Coolest Projects Sofia 2018

As CoderDojo and the Coolest Projects movement grows in popularity, there have also been several exciting regional events over the past number of weeks, including Coolest Projects UK, Coolest Projects Belgium and last weekend, Coolest Projects Sofia!

 

An unforgettable regional event

I was very lucky to have the opportunity to attend Coolest Projects Sofia, which took place on the 12th May at Telerik Academy and was hosted by CoderDojo Bulgaria, the Digital National Alliance with the support of the CoderDojo Foundation, Telerik Academy Foundation and the Embassy of Ireland in Bulgaria. This is the second year of this regional event taking place, where Ninjas from around the region travelled to showcase their amazing projects!

The event played host to almost 100 projects on the day, with Ninjas in attendance from seven different Dojos including Weda, VMware and of course, TelerikAcademy. There were a range of Scratch categories from ‘Games’, ‘Stories’ to ‘Animation’, while other categories included Websites and Hardware.

  

 

The projects: ingenuity, creativity and diversity

In addition to having lots of fun at the event, I was amazed by the ingenuity, creativity and diversity across the projects. Some examples include a working vacuum cleaner designed for people with disabilities, a Scratch game to teach about recycling, and a Micro:bit project to help find a lost mobile phone. 

Throughout the afternoon, the Ninjas were busy getting involved in a variety of exciting workshops which took place within different spaces of the building. Amongst these workshops were ‘Mental Arithmetic’, ‘Taratanci – Bulgarian Folk Dances’ and  a 3D-printing session.

While there were some cool prizes to be won at Coolest Projects Sofia, the main focus of the event was participation, creativity and of course, having fun! Each Ninja who showcased a project can be extremely proud – a huge well done to everyone who participated! I was particularly impressed by the peer evaluation sessions, where Ninjas were given the opportunity to provide positive feedback on each other’s projects.

   

 

Thanks to the organisers

Lastly, a massive well done to the organisers of Coolest Projects Sofia, including Vessela and Adriana and their extended team, who gave me such a warm welcome. Putting together such an incredible event takes a lot of hard work and dedication – thank you!

 

Coolest Projects International

If you want to attend Coolest Projects International on the 26th of May in the RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin you can learn more and get your tickets at: tickets.coolestprojects.org.

What can you expect on the day?

  • Over 700 projects being presented by more than 1,000 young people, from across Ireland and 14 additional countries including Bulgaria, Argentina and Japan,
  • panel discussions, hands on activities, demonstrations and workshops, and
  • an inspiring keynote speech by Raspberry Pi Co-creator, Pete Lomas.