Overview
This computer coding camp is aimed at high-schoolers in Dominica interested in computers and who would like to learn to program computers. Programming computers allows for anything from automating repetitive tasks to building complex business applications.
Summer Coding’s “Introduction To Coding” will cover basic to intermedia coding concepts, with the goal of arming students with the tools needed to become productive, real-work programmers. To make learning these abstract concepts more tactile, lessons will utilize the Raspberry Pi Pico, a low-cost, high performance microcontroller board – allowing easy interfacing with hardware such as LED lights, OLED displays, speakers, temperature sensors etc. Building blocks for real-world, custom solutions.
This course will be presented in two groups: a morning group (8:30am to 12:30pm) and an afternoon group (1pm to 5pm) and will meet every weekday for three weeks. Each group will have a capacity of thirty (30) participants, to meet the aim of 10:1 student/instructor ratio. The camp will be instructed by two career software engineers, with assistance by a high-school computer science teacher. Each session will be broken into three hourly long sessions, with 10 minute, then a 30 minute break.
Who is this for?
The three week course is designed for motivated high-school students with an interest in computers. Previous computer coding experience is not necessary, as this will be an introductory course. Access to a computer, with some internet access, is strongly recommended (though not strictly required) as companion reading materials will be provided only as digital media.
Enrolment
Enrolment two either the morning or afternoon classes will be done through www.summercoding.com where an online profile will be created for the enrolling student by a parent/guardian. The deadline for enrolment is June 30th 2025. For this inaugural classes, the enrolment fee is $200 (XCD).
The venue
The Saint Mary’s Academy will be the gracious hosts of the 2025 Summer Coding Introduction to Coding groups. Located in Roseau along Turkey Lane, the Saint Mary’s Academy (SMA) is well equipment for hosting high schoolers with both a well equipped computer lab, and available facilities.
Materials and other provisions
To facilitate this course the following materials will be provided: digital books on programming, a microcontroller, a breakout board to simplify use of the microcontroller, various components to use with the microcontroller.
Snacks and beverages will also be provided during breaks, included in the enrolment fee. Students are welcome to bring along additional, well packages, refreshments.
Curriculum
- 3 Sections
- 45 Lessons
- 3 Weeks
- Week 1Week one introduces students to the course, and starts the journey with the basics of programming, using Python.15
- 1.125-INTRO-M01 Introduction1 Hour
- 1.225-INTRO-M03 Hello World, Hello Variables1 Hour
- 1.325-INTRO-M02 Tools of the trade1 Hour
- 1.425-INTRO-M04 Tuples and Lists1 Hour
- 1.525-INTRO-M05 Indexing and slicing1 Hour
- 1.625-INTRO-M06 Dicts and Sets1 Hour
- 1.725-INTRO-M07 Simple Loops1 Hour
- 1.825-INTRO-M08 List Comprehension1 Hour
- 1.925-INTRO-M09 More Loops1 Hour
- 1.1025-INTRO-M10 Logic and Conditions1 Hour
- 1.1125-INTRO-M11 If Statements1 Hour
- 1.1225-INTRO-M12 Controlling Loops1 Hour
- 1.1325-INTRO-M13 Let’s make something1 Hour
- 1.1425-INTRO-M14 You make something1 Hour
- 1.1525-INTRO-M15 Review your peers1 Hour
- Week 2Week two shifts into higher gear with some more advanced topics, that will give students the tools they need to create everyday useful code.15
- 2.125-INTRO-M16 Functions
- 2.225-INTRO-M17 Classes
- 2.325-INTRO-M18 Modules
- 2.425-INTRO-M19 Algorithms
- 2.525-INTRO-M20 Flowcharts
- 2.625-INTRO-M21 Modeling
- 2.725-INTRO-M22 The standard library
- 2.825-INTRO-M23 The “os” module
- 2.925-INTRO-M24 The “time” module
- 2.1025-INTRO-M25 Reading and writing files
- 2.1125-INTRO-M26 CSV
- 2.1225-INTRO-M27 JSON
- 2.1325-INTRO-M28 Error handling
- 2.1425-INTRO-M29 Making web requests
- 2.1525-INTRO-M30 Using a web API
- Week 3The final week sees a series of practical applications by way of solo and team coding projects.15
- 3.125-INTRO-M31 MQTT – The Standard for IoT Messaging
- 3.225-INTRO-M32 Temperature logging
- 3.325-INTRO-M33 Temperature sensor
- 3.425-INTRO-M34 Code style
- 3.525-INTRO-M35 Documentation
- 3.625-INTRO-M36 Sharing and versioning
- 3.725-INTRO-M37 Project: Stop Lights, #1
- 3.825-INTRO-M38 Project: Stop Lights, #2
- 3.925-INTRO-M39 Project: Stop Lights, #3
- 3.1025-INTRO-M40 Understanding problems
- 3.1125-INTRO-M41 Getting help
- 3.1225-INTRO-M42 Solving your problems
- 3.1325-INTRO-M43 Project: First To React Game, #1
- 3.1425-INTRO-M44 Project: First To React Game, #2
- 3.1525-INTRO-M45 Project: First To React Game, #3