WCL awarded digital literacy grant

For the second year in a row, Whitman County Library has been awarded a $7,500 Digital Literacy Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by Washington State Library, to continue providing area teens with hands-on coding camps.

As a grant recipient last year, the library partnered with schools in Colfax, LaCrosse, Steptoe, Oakesdale, Palouse, Rosalia and Colton to introduce more than 290 students to coding part one, providing interactive electronics through six LED light sequencing experiments using the Arduino Platform and C++ programming language.

Part two students explored robotics using C++ programming language to control a line patterning RedBot. Camps were also held in the St. John library.

This year the grant enables the library to add Coding Camp Part Three: More Arduino Projects! In this two-hour camp students will use C++ programming with Arduino Platform to make a strobe, make a randomly influenced finger flute and use a speaker as both input and output to make "The Tapper." The grant also allowed for the library to purchase a new traveling laptop lab.

All camps are being scheduled now. Residents interested in bringing coding camps to a school, library or youth group can contact Nichole Kopp, WCL teen librarian: [email protected].