The 15th CoderDojo Dazaifu, Japan! (Online)

Event Reports

May 17th (Sun), we held the 15th CoderDojo Dazaifu.
This time, it was held by online too.
Eleven ninjas and five mentors participated. We didn’t have to help because everyone was already used to online.

Everyone is accustomed to online dojo and the some troubles are gone, but we wanted to try something new.
This time, we set up a special rule to work on programming according to the themes, with the idea of ​our ​mentor Masatoshi! (But it was not forced. Ninjas have could do what they wanted to do.)

The themes are “animal”, “family” and “virus”. Ninjas chose one or more of these to work on their work. I told them that any programming languages are available. And the programming time started. I was very much looking forward to what they created!

By the way, last time I gave a lecture on how to draw Scratch’s sprites, and this time I gave a lecture on how to use a Scratch backpack.
I think that the number of ninjas who make sprites by themselves is gradually increasing, but I thought that some ninjas do not know that they can reuse sprites that they made for other projects, so I decided on this theme. Scratch’s backpack is not only a sprite, but it can also contain code blocks, sounds, stage backgrounds, etc. It is very convenient, intuitive and very easy to remember and use. Please try it out.

Online, I feel that the teaching is difficult and limited. I would be glad if the ninjas who participated could learn something even small things. So, I would like to continue the short lecture of about 5 minutes so that the concentration of ninja is not lost while online.
Next time I will give a lecture related to computer science. But, I also feel that the content ninjas can try it immediately is better. When I saw ninja’s presentations, it seems that many ninjas tried using the backpack! I felt glad I did this lecture.(You had already known how to use a backpack!?)

It was very quiet while the ninjas and mentors are focused.
I thought I would talk something, but I also thought it might interfere with ninjas working. When I thought about it, the working time was over.
The presentation time has started!

First, it is a game in which the spinning “I” is moved to the goal with the arrow keys.The game is over when it touch the red line! It has a practice mode. It is very nice game!

Next, it is a game that a monkey defeat ghosts and viruses with thunder. Seeing this background, I felt that this ninja has a nice design sense! By the way, this virus is a sprite that I drew at home the day before for a lecture. Thank you for using!

This is a dancing rabbit program. A rabbit says “Hello” as it dancing.
This ninja learned the “Repeat” block, that can group similar blocks together!


This ninja made an animation work to make curry rice using sprites drawn by mentor Naoko. She seems to have inspired this work by looking at the material illustrations. Naoko’s ability to draw cute illustrations, and this ninja’s ability to cook them by programming well. Both are abilities that I do not have! I’m envious!

It is a work in progress. But some keywords ,those said by this ninja, such as “bats”, “viruses” and “antibodies”, and the prepared variable names of “money”, “speed”, “strength”, and “enemy” was a very interesting. The antibody costs 100 yen (laughs). I will buy it!

A Kindergarten ninja made a cute work with Viscuit. When she push drawings with her finger, a mom becomes a diamond, and then becomes a star.
This time, two kindergarten ninjas participated and both were making works using Viscuit. Viscuit is highly recommended because even children who are not good at keyboards and mice can draw pictures with their fingers on tablets and smartphone apps.

Next ninja said “Please be careful about noise.” as first. He made a work that many cats sings. Each cat keeps producing different sounds. He said it was easy because it was duplicated. I think, changing each timings at which the sound is produced seems to be an interesting!

This is also a game in which the cat is moved with the keyboard to aim at the goal. If the cat hits the wall, it will get a virus. OMG(lol). Even in the real world, do not touch it here and there and take your time to wash your hands well! It has several stages. And the ultimate goal is a company. I thought it was very funny idea.

This is a work that replaces the classic ping-pong game ping-pong with a virus and the paddle with a mask. It is a good idea. It is still important to wear a mask to prevent infecting others. This work seems to make by looking scratch cards. Why don’t you try this card too? There are many other examples available and it is a very good teaching material.


The last Ninja made a game of getting medicine by avoiding viruses that move in various ways. The movement of the virus was devised such that it moved in a straight orbit or in a circular orbit. There are various ways to move sprites regularly or irregularly, so it’s interesting to investigate and make a program. By learning the circular orbit, you can also learn sin and cos, which you don’t usually use (isn’t it?).

Finally, the mentors also presented their works. This time, it was interesting that the work by mentor Sakai that recognizes voice and translates it. You can select the input and output languages. For example, when I said “Hello” in English, there was a reply “Bonjour” in French. As I introduced last time, there are many interesting services such as scratch extensions and tools that can try AI such as machine learning derived from scratch, so if you are interested, please join CoderDojo and please ask us!

How was it?
By participating in dojo at several times, the ninjas(children) got the knack for online dojos and was able to make presentations in a short time and in a fun way.
Mentors (adult) are the same. Through several times of holding, we’re enjoying trial and error, and having fun.
Fortunately, amid this virus turmoil, a comfortable environment for remote work is being created all over the world. Of course, that doesn’t mean that everything can be done remotely, and working remotely is not always good.

However, I would like children to feel the wisdom of living a better life, spending a comfortable and enriching life, and the current fast development of technology. When you participate in the online dojo, you may feel that it’s not a good experience, it’s getting better little by little, or that this one is better. And then,
I think those experiences may be useful in the future. So, if you haven’t tried it yet, or if you’re interested in it, feel free to join us!

At CoderDojo Fukuoka, Hakata, and Dazaifu, we will hold online dojos on different days.
We will notify you via Facebook or LINE, so please follow us or register as a friend.

If you have a connpass account, it is convenient to join a group.
CoderDojo Dazaifu: https://coderdojo-dazaifu.connpass.com/
CoderDojo Fukuoka: https://coderdojo-fukuoka.connpass.com/
CoderDojo Hakata: https://coderdojo-hakata.connpass.com/

CoderDojo Kurume looks fun too. I’ll join next time after a long time!
CoderDojo Kurume:https://coderdojo-kurume.connpass.com/

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I am glad if you can correct my strange English sentences.
Please tell me secretly by email or comment 😉 Thank you!!!
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