Just because children were out of school on Friday, Oct. 7 didn't mean the education had to stop, and for kids who went to the Stettler Public Library's Binary Bling and Lego events, education took the form of fun.
The two events, geared towards two different age groups, were part of a program designed to teach STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — in a fun and engaging way.
The first event, geared toward younger children, was Binary Bling. Children were introduced to the language of computers, binary code, and taught how to spell their names out using 1s and 0s. After they had figured out their name in binary code, they made sparkly, fun art from the collection of 1s and 0s.
In the afternoon, the slightly older group of kids gathered in the annex at the library to not just play with Lego, but learn to code with it.
Participants — and their parents — worked on creating games on a grid, using computer terms like "start" and "end." The grids allowed participants to design their game routes on paper, before transferring it to the dark green Lego mats. There was excitement among the kids, as along with their parents and guardians they picked out their game markers and began to cut out the sheet of commands designed to help them start to think like coders rather than players of a game.
The next phase of the program will focus on engineering.