Students from grades 5-8 learned how to code in a week-long summer coding workshop taught by Newtown High School senior Virginia Lynch at C.H. Booth Library. The coding workshop was split into two one-week long sessions, with the first running from Monday, August 12 to Friday, August 16, and the second running from Monday, August 19 to Friday, August 23.

Coding is a type of programming that involves writing instructions for machines to follow in order to perform certain tasks. This is seen in everyday life, ranging from calculators and cellphones to websites and video games.

Open to students of all coding levels, the workshop was designed to get students interested in coding by making it fun and approachable, and taught them how to code by using programming languages such as Scratch and Python.

Scratch is a visual, block-based coding language that has people drag-and-drop blocks to create code, and hosts a wide variety of games made by its users for other people to play on its website. Python, meanwhile, is a text-based programming language, which means that unlike Scratch, has people type out code rather than use blocks.

Lynch set up a Google website for the class, where she listed several different project examples and workshops every day for students to learn and try to challenge themselves with. These included quick little tutorials for how people can use Python to make a calculator and showcasing different virtual pet games that people made on Scratch.

This workshop came from Lynch’s desire to create more challenging computer science education for students. Lynch got an early start with coding, as her mom made her a Scratch account when she was in the fourth grade. She used that for while, she said, but eventually felt that she was never challenged in school with coding whenever it came up.

When she was in middle school, Lynch says that they just used the online educational coding platform CodeMonkey and felt that it was below her level. Then later on in high school, she was excited to take an introduction to Python class, but says that she was disappointed with the “hands-off, teach yourself approach” and also felt that it was below her level.

“I really just want to have more challenging computer science education,” Lynch said.

Unsatisfied with her coding classes in school, this drove Lynch to focus on coding for her Girl Scout Gold Award. Regarded as the highest and most prestigious award in Girl Scouting, the Girl Scout Gold Award is comparable with the Boy Scouts of America’s Eagle Scout merit. In order to earn it, Girl Scouts must identify an issue in their community, think of a way to address it, and turn those ideas into a plan that they can use to take action and improve the community.

For her Girl Scout Gold Award, Lynch aims to create opportunities for high school students to teach younger students how to code. She hopes to encourage more challenging computer science education, and to have students understand the benefits and valuable skills that come from learning how to code.

This is what eventually led Lynch to set up the summer coding workshop at the library. According to Young Adult Librarian Darcy Sowers, Lynch has been a volunteer at the library this year, and her brother Henry Lynch had volunteered in the past.

“One thing that I offer for volunteers is that they can run their own programs if they really want to,” Sowers said. “So she was interested in running a coding program, and she went from there.”

Sowers believes that giving people of all ages the chance to learn through programs like this at the library can get them invested in subjects that they might not otherwise look into.

“Getting that introduction with Scratch or with Python is so important,” Sowers said. “If the kids are interested, then they’ll go, ‘Hey, this is kind of cool. I want to learn more.’ With a lot of these too, once you have the basic knowledge, then you can find places online like websites or programs that can help you go further.”

The summer coding workshop is far from Lynch’s first step towards that goal. She also did a seven session video game club in the spring.

“I just want to keep going with more coding clubs and to teach younger grades about coding,” Lynch said. “And I also really want to raise awareness about computer science to [younger students] because if my mom never introduced me to Scratch in fourth grade, then I’d never even know that I’m good at it or would even like it.”

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.