The Elsies River Tribal Chiefs comes out tops at the City’s Mandela Day coding tournament, Unplugged. Picture: supplied
Cape Town - Two teams from Elsies River are gearing-up to participate against top coders from other libraries across the province, in an exciting race to determine the champions to represent the Western Cape in the national competition in October.
The Elsies River Tribal Chiefs and Team Yoh!, placed first and third positions respectively in the City’s Mandela Day coding tournament, Unplugged, with the Belhar Rangers in second.
Bonteheuwel librarian and Unplugged coding facilitator, Randall Ruso, said: “Unplugged is a form of coding that utilises a mobile phone and puzzle pieces. It requires minimal data, as the app is only 7MB in size, and teams can play Tanks or Rangers offline, using the app and the tokens from the game packs.”
Twenty-seven City libraries hosted in-house coding sessions on Mandela Day, and once the scores were in, the teams from Elsies River library made it to the top three.
The initiative is facilitated by the City through the function of its libraries’ in-house coding sessions.
Following their impressive win, the Elsies River Tribal Chiefs, Belhar Rangers and Team Yoh!, are set to go up against top performers from other libraries to determine who will advance to the national competition in October and then the World Tournament in December.
Mayco member for community services and health, Patricia van der Ross, said libraries had taken the proverbial bull by the horns with the coding initiative.
“I am so happy to see how it is taking hold and hope that we can build on its growing popularity by getting even more of our libraries and our communities involved in the future. “The Mandela Day Coding tournament is played nationally with support from the Tangible Africa and Leva Foundation partners,” Van der Ross said.
Participants of Unplugged coding Subhay Mohamed, and Omar Mohamed shared how coding had inspired them to teach their peers.
“Coding inspired me to think better. I also want to teach big people about coding and I want to make it an accessible sport that people can easily learn about,” said Mohamed.
nomalanga.tshuma@inl.co.za
Cape Argus
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