Launching a state-of-the-art fire-fighting satellite was no mean feat, not least from a small bay on the south coast of Perth. But for a young computer programmer called Aiden, it was all in a day’s work. “I managed to access the code to launch the satellite,” reports Aiden matter-of-factly. “And then I programmed another one in our orbit to travel on a different trajectory around the Earth.”
It’s not often that a group of 11-year-old students get to save the planet, but for the members of Comet Bay Primary School’s Junior STEM Academy, the responsibilities of software coding are never taken lightly.
We live in a world of tech... we have a responsibility to learn about it. If we can’t access all the possibilities that tech offers, we may as well go back to the Stone Age!
- 11 yo Aiden, Comet Bay Primary School's Junior STEM Academy
Like thousands of young people around the world, the platform for their latest challenge was Moonhack 2022 – the latest iteration of Australia’s largest community coding event, which last year reached a record 43,999 students, teachers and parents in 509 schools, libraries and homes across 64 countries.
Hosted by Code Club Australia (CCA), an initiative powered by Telstra Foundation, the event has grown into a global movement uniting thousands of primary-school pupils and teachers with a shared passion for coding. It provides source codes and instructions for six coding projects and invites the participants to create their own versions – incorporating any local themes, characters, music, or other inspiration that may strike them.
Last year, Moonhack was held in October to coincide with World Space Week, and the overarching theme was ‘Satellites for Sustainability’. The favourite project – by a lightyear – was a clicker game designed by Code Club Australia manager Kaye North in which satellites orbit the Earth, putting out bushfires.
It was a true baptism of fire for the Grade 4 and 5 kids in Comet Bay, whose new STEM Academy aims to help children with an interest in coding, robotics and other computing sciences to turn their hobbies into broader community knowledge.
“Our goal is that the children will take what they learn here to their teachers and inspire them and their classmates to incorporate more tech in their classrooms,” says Academy convenor Tayla De Coster. “We give them badges as ‘tech mentors’ and design YouTube tutorials to help their teachers bring coding and tech into the curriculum.”
For Aiden and his classmates, the importance of coding already goes far beyond interactive games they can play in class. “We live in a world of tech, which is all around us, and we have a responsibility to learn about it,” says Aiden solemnly. “If we can’t access all the possibilities that tech offers, we may as well go back to the Stone Age!”
