Mentoring

Who are we mentoring?

Up to 50 kids, aged between 10 and 18, from different backgrounds, with a range of skills from complete beginner to advanced. (If you’ve ever run a code club, you will know to expect a little chaos.)

What will I be doing?

As a mentor, you’ll be guiding the kids in finding, scoping, planning, developing and presenting their projects.  These projects might be web apps, mobile apps, websites, VR/AR experiences, hardware projects with sensors (e.g. robots), games and game mods, musical instruments, animations, audio or visual art, or something else.  Your ability to help the kids articulate their problems and to guide them patiently in finding solutions for themselves is far more important than how many languages you’re familiar with.

What programming languages do I need to know?

Wait, wait!  We don’t ONLY need programmers!  UX designers, graphic designers, musicians, story-tellers, animators, film-makers… all are useful!

In terms of programming languages and environments, we try to have the kids use and progress whatever skills they already have, so being adaptable is important in a mentor, as is patience, and having a solid, good-natured approach to troubleshooting.  

For the curious, technologies used in previous events included MIT Scratch, HTML and CSS, Javascript, Processing (and p5.js), Java, C# in Unity for games and AR/VR, MIT App Inventor, Python (particularly for the BBC Micro:Bit).

Is it paid?

No, sorry, we have a very limited budget.  Perhaps your work will sponsor you?

Where and when?

At Wapping High School (near Shadwell station and Aldgate East station).

Monday 26th July – Friday 30th July, 10 am – 4 pm

How much time do I need to commit?

For mentors, ideally at least two mornings or one full day (10 am – 4 pm).  If you’ve worked with us before or have a lot of code club or similar experience, that may be negotiable.

For workshop leaders, one afternoon is fine.

OK, I’m really interested!  What now?

Register your interest on the form.  If suitable, there’ll be a follow up about availability and an invitation to join our slack with the other mentors.