Amy Mather’s first brush with coding came at a Manchester Girl Geeks workshop when she was 12. Now 14, she has used several coding languages including Python and PHP to design games and write software such as Conway’s Game of Life, in which “cells” in a grid live or die based on certain rules. She has also become a leading voice for the kids’ coding movement in the UK — a whirlwind of enthusiasm encouraging peers to get into coding, making and hacking. “Young people are put off by the stereotypes,” says Mather (pictured), who was named European Digital Girl of the Year as part of the 2013 Ada Awards. “But if you come to the workshops you’ll see that it’s more about actually making things, rather than being alone with a computer in your bedroom.”
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Thumbs up and Cheers for the FourTeen CreaTive Teen! =D