Reese Ochitwa, a twelfth-grade student at Bert Church High School, has started a new coding club to ignite students' interest in computer programming.
Ochitwa's interest in programming began when she joined a girls' STEM club run by her fifth-grade teacher at Heloise Lorimer School. Through the club, she participated in coding workshops and robotics competitions, which later inspired her to bring the idea to her own high school.
“Coding is one of the greatest activities in the world. Being able to create anything you can dream of is an invaluable skill that I think more students should learn," Ochitwa said. "Some students may think coding is difficult or beyond their abilities, so I want to provide a space where they feel comfortable learning, making mistakes, and creating anything they can imagine.”
Since school started this past September, a group of about six to ten students has been meeting once a week during lunch, with Ochitwa currently serving as the club president.
She mentioned that Bert Church's robotics class satisfied some of the coding interest until it was canceled last year due to a lack of staff. Although the robotics program is back this year, Ochitwa started this club to give students more opportunities to explore computer science. "The club will introduce students to coding and further encourage existing interest through fun long-term and bite-sized projects," she explained. "Students may not realize they enjoy computer science because they haven't explored it in class before. But through coding, kids learn problem-solving, creativity, resilience, and math."
The club members began by creating websites that showcased their various interests. Next, they learned a new coding language called JavaScript, and since then, they have developed games that can be played on handheld consoles—also built through the club.
"It's almost like solving a puzzle! Finally seeing that end result is the greatest feeling," she added.