traP hosts coding class for middle and high school students in summer 2023

Digital Creators Club traP, an official Tokyo Tech Student Club, organized another coding class for middle and high school students on Ookayama Campus on September 2. This was the fourteenth time the student club guided youngsters through the workshop.

Support was once again provided by Supporterz Inc., a Tokyo-based recruitment and event planning company, which helped with lunch and other expenses.

Twenty-three middle and high school students participated in this class, aiming to complete a browser-based invader game with the support of traP club members. Using original instructional material created by traP and the JavaScript programming language, the students implemented functions to move the player, fire bullets, and execute other actions in the game. After a total of six hours of programming, all participants were able to complete the basic part of the game. Some participants also worked on more advanced functions such as creating sounds for the game and placing multiple enemies in the playing field.

To provide further inspiration to participants who want to expand their world through coding, a round of five-minute lightning talks was also held after lunch time. The theme for this summer was the "weapon of youth," which aimed to encourage the participants to realize the opportunities they have at their reach.

In the post-event survey, feedback from all participants was once again very positive. Seventeen of twenty respondents said they felt very satisfied.

Members of Digital Creation Club traP are already actively preparing future events, which will continue to be held twice a year in both spring and summer.

Students who enter a school or faculty of computing at the university level will obviously have opportunities to practice coding. However, at the middle and high school level, we often hear that students do not have many opportunities to experience programming, do not understand how to apply what they have learned, or are not able to build a particular environment or solve rudimentary errors.

The aim of this event was to encourage students to use intuitive and easy-to-understand materials to create something tangible — an invader game — while receiving support from traP members skilled in coding to complete the task. We are delighted by the positive feedback from the participants for this programming class.

Digital Creators Club traP, an official Tokyo Tech Student Club, was established in April 2015 with the aim of producing digital content in teams and sharing techniques and technology with others. The club focuses on various activities including app and game creation, digital and audio content creation, illustration, 3D computer graphics, competitive programming, and cybersecurity capture the flag competitions. traP shares its knowledge through various public engagement activities, including game creation exchange events such as Game^3, and programming classes for middle and high school students.