XplainED 2020 Summer Coding Seminar

June 22-26

Although the coronavirus may have put a pause on the world, it could not stop us from our mission to expand quality education to all. As the digital age rises, knowing computer science is becoming more essential to life. Consequently, our program organizers made the best effort to deliver to you, and in fact spent much time redesigning the course to fit an online platform.

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Program Description
Recordings
Testimonials
Instructors

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One Program, Two Sections

As everyone should have the ability to learn coding, XplainED sought to gather students of all ages. As such, we divided the program into two different sections: one for elementary school students (the “elementary session”), and one for grades 7+ (the “main session”). Both sessions took place at the same time in two different Zoom meetings.

Section content was tailored exactly towards the listed age groups. As such, although we had predetermined groupings, students also had the option to switch sessions if they felt that one was too easy or too hard. 

Main Session Course Description

The XplainED 2020 Summer Coding Seminar was a vigorous free program that took place on the dates June 22-26 2020. In these 5 days, students learned the basics of Java programming, learning print statements, variables, logic, loops, user input, and algorithms.

The content of this seminar was designed so that students of all ages can participate. As this is an introductory seminar, we did not require students to have any background knowledge on computer science at all, but rather suggested that that students have strong logic and critical thinking skills.

All lectures were taught by experienced coders (university students or computing competitors) and covered all course content. In addition to lectures, the seminar had labs which were designed to offer students a chance to apply this new knowledge.

Main Session Content

Even if you did not attend our seminar, you can watch our recordings here:
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Testimonials

"I have really enjoyed learning about coding and understanding the mentality of a computer through this seminar. I liked the hospitality of the instructors, as well as the labs since it allowed us to experiment with what we learned and learn from our mistakes (if one took the initiative to do so, that is). I think this course was a great introduction into the basics of coding and would attend XplainED seminars again in future occasion. I would recommend it to friends and family."
Sebastien Yanez
Student
"I enjoyed learning about how the concept of logic is applied to programming because it turns the otherwise daunting task of learning a computer language into a more intuitive experience. I really enjoyed the course; thank you to all involved!"
Jake Zimelman
Student
"The instructors were really friendly with questions that were asked. They seemed to be very knowledgeable about the topics covered."
Ryan Bauza
Student
"I really liked the challenging code exercises because it really forced me to think critically and find creative ways to make the program work"
Daniel C.
Student
"I think part of my favorite thing was being able to type with the teacher because you could understand better what they were typing and how to do it. I like how the teachers taught and they did a great job explaining in detail everything."
Pablo C.
Student

Meet Our Main Session Instructors

Content Developer & Lead Instructor

Mike Zhou

Mike is currently a rising senior in Florida. As a high schooler, he loves pure mathematics and coding, and participates in competitions such as the USA Computing Olympiad and American Invitational Mathematics Exam. Mike does not keep those joys to himself though: he highly enjoys teaching, and loves to spread his skills to others. Aside from academics, Mike enjoys playing piano and playing games such as Pokémon (although he currently cannot beat it “quickly”).

Instructor

Kevin An

Kevin is a student at UC Berkeley majoring in mathematics and computer science. His academic interests include algebra, logic, and theoretical computer science especially computational complexity theory. Outside of academics he enjoys making music (horn, piano, and very recently flute) as well as tennis, poker, chess and trying to show that P=NP by beating Pokémon, Zelda, and Mario games really, really fast (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1203.1895.pdf).

Meet Our Elementary Section Instructors

Lead Instructor

Tong Jing

Tong Jing is a sophomore at MPSH. He really likes studying math and computer science. He has experience in many math competitions including Mathcounts and AMC. In his free time, he likes to read books and work on new coding projects.

Content Developer

Mike Zhou

Mike is currently a rising senior in Florida. As a high schooler, he loves pure mathematics and coding, and participates in competitions such as the USA Computing Olympiad and American Invitational Mathematics Exam. Mike does not keep those joys to himself though: he highly enjoys teaching, and loves to spread his skills to others. Aside from academics, Mike enjoys playing piano and playing games such as Pokémon (although he currently cannot beat it “quickly”).

Instructor

Qingqi Yuan

Qingqi Yuan is an incoming junior at Gulliver Prep in Miami. She has been participating in the computer science national honor society in her school, doing outreaches, and teaching little kids how to do coding. During her Freshman year, she got an Excellence in World History and Biology Scholarship Award at Miller Campus. She took the second place in the 2018 Congressional App Challenge for FL-27 district. She likes coding, baking, skateboarding, and volunteering. She thinks volunteering can help her to learn new skills and gain experience.