A total of 26 of the City’s libraries have signed up for a Library Coding Network tournament, in partnership with Nelson Mandela University, that will see the top teams from each facility go head-to-head at City Hall on Mandela Day.
The libraries currently signed up to join the Mandela Day Coding Tournament are: Camps Bay, Mowbray, Observatory, Belhar, Bonteheuwel, Goodwood, Durbanville, Milnerton, Bellville, Parow, Leonsdale, Ocean View, Hanover Park, Manenberg, Central, Pinelands, Pelican Park, Kuyasa, Rocklands, Bishop Lavis, Mfuleni, Mitchells Plain, Grassy Park, Khayelitsha, Adriaanse and Valhalla Park Library.
Participants make use of Tangible Africa’s flagship coding applications, TANKS and RANGERS, that is played offline, using minimal resources.
The award-winning tangible coding movement, an engagement project of the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation, has for the past two years gained momentum across the continent.
“This form of coding improves the participants’ problem-solving, comprehension and collaboration skills. By the end of the game, when they’ve completed all 35 levels, participants will be able to move on to plugged coding in libraries, using applications such as SCRATCH, which is currently available on our SmartCape computers.
“The tournament planned for Mandela Day is an exciting prospect, and I want to thank Nelson Mandela University for this exciting collaboration opportunity for our young people.
“It is my sincere hope that this initiative will take hold and become a regular feature in all of our libraries over time,” said Mayco member for community services and health, Patricia Van der Ross.
Impacting communities
Prof Jean Greylin, head of the Department of Computing Sciences at Nelson Mandela University, said since they started in 2017, libraries have been a great implementation partner, assisting them to impact communities.
“We are very grateful to the Cape Town libraries who have taken ownership of the Tangible Africa coding movement,” Greylin said.
Minda Maritz, the principal librarian at Goodwood Library, said that they do participate in the Mandela Day coding programme, and they already have a team that started training in the afternoons.
According to Maritz, she agrees that the games help children with coding and problem-solving.
“It teaches the children skills that will hopefully be able to make a contribution to the community in the long term,” Maritz said.
