Tackling real-life issues with code in India

Meet Ms. Sofia, a Computer Science teacher from Vishwa Bharati Public School (VBPS) in Uttar Pradesh, India. Ms. Sofia was introduced to CoderDojo by one of her students, Mrigank, who had previously attended another Dojo and is already a Full-Stack Software Engineer! In Mrigank’s own words: “The ultimate goal of technology is the betterment of human life, by simplifying daily endeavour and making things of use more accessible.” We couldn’t agree more!

Ms. Sofia was instantly impressed with the CoderDojo model, and with the help of Mrigank, she registered a Dojo within the school’s eNov@tors club.

 

The challenges and lessons learnt

Like most CoderDojo champions, Ms. Sofia had to overcome some initial challenges. In particular, she found it difficult to get students involved outside of their usual lessons. Through trial and error, she engaged students using competitions, quick-fire games, and problem solving.

Ms. Sofia recalls one memorable session in which she introduced an on-the-spot activity for the Ninjas to design a game in Python within the space of five minutes! 

“They were all so excited and were in fact pushing each other to perform better. They were full of enthusiasm for coding, which makes us happy — computer learning is picking up speed in India!”

– Ms. Sofia 

Solving real-life problems

Ms. Sofia was determined for her Ninjas to tackle real issues in society, so her Dojo made projects relating to cyber safety, created apps about plastic usage, the promotion of handicrafts, and much more. 

Problem-solving is one of the core skills that you develop while coding, as you learn how to apply solutions bit by bit. Coding encourages you to deconstruct the bigger problem and to work towards solving each manageable piece.

In search of coding inspiration? Check out our projects site!

Next steps

Ms. Sofia hopes to increase the scope of CoderDojo in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and aims to create spaces for collaboration so Dojos can share their learnings and best practices. We wish her all the best!

Inspired by Ms. Sofia’s story? Learn more about starting a Dojo or schedule a call with Vasu from the CoderDojo India team below to learn how you can start a CoderDojo club of your own!

Schedule a call with Vasu!