Ocean View Library cemented its name in the Mandela World Coding Championship when it clinched third place in a contest that featured 55 other teams from 21 countries. Learners Orlando Baker, Grace Frank, Meah Jacobs, Aaron Smith and Aqeelah Abrahams used their coach’s phone to practise and train for the competition as none of the teenagers owned a cellphone.
Ocean View Library cemented its name in the Mandela World Coding Championship when it clinched third place in a contest that featured 55 other teams from 21 countries.
Three City of Cape Town libraries, including Valhalla Park and Belhar, represented South Africa at the virtual event held on Tuesday 5 December, a day that also marked the 10th anniversary of Madiba’s passing.
Mayco member for community services and health Patricia van der Ross said it was a remarkable achievement as teams had only been coding for a few months.
“They have done the City proud and we are impressed by their analytical and problem-solving skills. They’ve done well and I want to encourage more young people to join the coding clubs at participating libraries.”
The award-winning tangible coding movement is an engagement project of the Nelson Mandela University computing sciences department and the Leva Foundation.
Tangible Africa is responsible for creating coding applications, TANKS and RANGERS, which allow participants to play offline, using minimal resources while unplugged coding allows libraries to bring coding to communities that do not have access to expensive resources.
Marlene Davids, senior librarian at Ocean View Library, congratulated the five learners who participated in the event.
“We had a few weeks to train the kids for the Western Cape leg of the competition that occurred on 10 July and they won that competition. Assistant librarian Ulfah Davids went for training on 7 June so that she could coach the learners who are all from Ocean View High School.”
Learners Orlando Baker, Grace Frank, Meah Jacobs, Aaron Smith and Aqeelah Abrahams used their coach’s phone to practise and train for the competition as none of the teenagers owned a cellphone.
“With unplugged coding, they need phones for coding and they don’t have cellphones and never had phones. The City gave us a tablet to use for the world championship.
“Most of the other schools and libraries started way before we even knew this tournament existed.”
Davids added that it was very encouraging to see the impact libraries and coding had on youth.
“Unplugged coding is part of our after-school activities at the library. In October, we had the lights out school programme with activities such as coding, chess, arts and crafts and reading buddies. It is a way to bring youth together and get them into a space they love.
“It’s also great to see the impact libraries have on learners as we try to keep them in a safe space.”
