This course is a workshop, not a lecture. Most days you will build, break, and fix things — sometimes with a computer, sometimes deliberately without one — and the ideas get their names after you have met them with your hands.
graph LR A["Warm-up"] --> B["Explore or build"] B --> C["Compare and name it"] C --> D["Notes to your future self"] D --> E["Log it"]
Warm-up
Five minutes at the door: Predict the Output on the board, a Spot the Bug hunt, or a Tech Headlines minute. Small daily reps — reading code and reasoning about it — compound faster than anything else in this course.
Explore or build
The heart of class. Some days are unplugged — you will programme a classmate to make a sandwich before you ever programme a computer — and some days are at the keyboard, usually in pairs: one person drives (hands on keys), one navigates (eyes on the plan), and you swap on a timer. The problem usually arrives BEFORE the technique; being stuck is part of the design, and Getting Unstuck is a skill we practise on purpose.
Compare and name it
We end the build by touring what groups did — different programs that solve the same problem, different diagnoses of the same bug — and only then does the idea get its proper name and its clean statement on a concept page.
Notes to your future self
A few sentences and one small example in your own words, written for the version of you who opens this at the end of the course having forgotten everything. The concept pages hold the full statements; your notes hold what YOU need.
Log it
When a period ends with “log it” on the agenda, the last minutes belong to your Dev Journal — what you built, what broke, what you would try next. Every professional developer keeps one in some form; yours starts now.
If you were away
Check the class page in All Classes, run the warm-up yourself, and try the build before reading anything about it. A genuine attempt teaches more than a perfect summary.
Curriculum connection
A3.3
investigate various career options related to digital technology and programming, and ways to continue their learning in these areas
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