Kings Mountain library teaches coding to kids

Joyce Orlando
jorlando@shelbystar.com
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Taylor Belcher, 9, watches an introduction to superhero coding at Mauney Memorial Library in Kings Mountain on Monday. [Brittany Randolph/The Star]

No one is ever too young to learn coding, at least not at the Mauney Memorial Library.

The Kings Mountain library hosted two coding classes for children and teens for Computer and Science in Education week in hopes of getting kids interested in coding early, said library assistant Trey Ross.

“We got a mini-grant from the American Library Association to put on the programs,” Ross said.

Using an MIT developed program called Scratch the 5-12 year old crowd they learned how to code someone in their life that they look to as a “hero.”

“Rather than displaying the code as text, they use blocks,” Ross said. “It gives them a baseline knowledge of coding.”

And that is exactly what 9-year-old Taylor Belcher was looking for.

The West Elementary student signed up for the class looking for an edge for her robotics team.

“I wanted to come and see if it could help,” she said.

Children stacked, sorted and snapped the digital Lego-like blocks into place until they built their characters. Then they put them into different scenarios, from comic strips to being the star of their own game.

Things got a bit more complicated in the teens class.

Instead of blocks they dived Java Script. Their goal? To figure out where the code went wrong in a computer game.

“When they open the game everything is messed up and they need to find the errors in the code,” Ross said.

The $300 mini-grant from ALA helps pay for these hour long sessions, but Ross believes more coding classes could be offered in at the library in the future due to the amount of people who signed up.

Taylor’s mother, Charlotte Belcher, is also hopeful that the library is able to keep having the classes.

“It would be great if they had a whole series of these courses,” she said.

So many people showed interest Ross had to turn to the library in Shelby to borrow additional laptops.

“The demand is definitely there for the kids,” he said.

Joyce Orlando can be reached at 704-669-3341 or find her on Twitter @Star_J_Orlando.

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