Moonhack saw more kids coding in one day than ever before

Last week’s Moonhack was a big deal for programming records, as kids getting became programmers. So how did we do?

More and more kids are getting into programming, and that’s a positive thing. Whether they’re learning coding like a language or using their skills to make great projects (or both), development is becoming a thing that children are embracing.

In fact, last week saw one of the most concentrated young programming efforts, as Code Club Australia and around the world encouraged kids to get to coding for one special day of it, breaking records as kids under the age of seven joined up with those as old as 17 to make things with others all on the one day.

Call it a day of record breaking, because that’s what Moonhack was made to be, gathering kids from all around the world to write code together, with 17,167 Australian kids coding in the space of 24 hours, while a further 11,408 joined in around the world.

Moonhack was undertaken across the world in 56 countries, from New Zealand to Argentina to Canada, Egypt, India, Estonia, South Korea, the UK, and the US, as well as, of course, Australia, with the genders close to being equally divided as 51% male and 49% female kids attended.

“Moonhack was an incredible success,” said Kelly Tagalan, General Manager of Code Club Australia. “What these kids demonstrated was more than just a great big show of skill and interest in coding and education, they showed that together, kids from different backgrounds, nations, abilities and support systems, can work together towards a common goal that’s bigger than any one entity.”

“Code Club isn’t just about technical skill building, it’s also about strengthening the community, raising the aspirations of future employees, and creating enthusiasm around peer collaboration and achieving the impossible, together,” she said.

While the next Moonhack won’t be until August 15, 2018, kids who participated in Moonhack will likely be encouraged to keep coding, developing solutions to problems and building their programming language skills. And this time next year, Code Club will no doubt be hoping to increase the amount of kids participating even further.