Phillip Craig, Innovation Catalyst at NPX, leading students through NII’s Coding Academy session.

Logan Chauder is just eight years old. But recently, while sitting at his dining room table, he found himself writing computer code and programming a video game.

In a recent media release from the Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII), like his classmates and many students around the world who have been unable to attend school due to COVID-19, Logan found himself at home, looking for something to do and attended the newly created NII Coding Academy.

“My son had a fantastic week learning to code,” said Melissa Chauder, Logan’s mother. “The instructors from NPX were very enthusiastic and engaging."

NII partnered with Kincardine start-up NPX to offer the free online classes and deliver "a fun, interactive program" to students in the Grey Bruce Huron region. Created in response to the closure of schools, NII launched the Coding Academy's first session on March 30 with over 100 students from Grades 2 to 7 participating from home via Zoom with many more students accessing the class on their own time through the Academy’s Google Classroom site.

The course includes homework activities and students can share their progress and coding creations with each other during the classes.

“It is incredibly rewarding to work with these kids and see how excited they are to learn to code and to have a platform to interact and share with each other,” said Phillip Craig, who hosts the classes from the NPX studio in Kincardine.

Registration for the NII Coding Academy is available online at www.nuclearinnovationinstitute.ca/coding-academy.