The word dojo may evoke images of Far East martial artists gathering in ancient temples, but West Sound CoderDojo is something altogether different.
Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, West Sound CoderDojo is a free, open-source and inclusive learning environment where participants aged 7 to 17, known as Ninjas, learn about coding, leadership, peer collaboration and computational thinking.
Sessions are held September through June and include mentoring in Hour of Code, an introduction to computer science, and Scratch, a visual coding language kids can use to create stories, animation and games.
WSCD incorporates what it calls “kids teaching kids” and the “grandmother method,” which encourage effort but are not direct instruction.
It’s not an instructor-student model,” said founder Doña Keating. Keating explained that mentors—who range from a senior software engineer to a University of Washington research scientist—are facilitative and don’t get involved unless attendees get stuck. “And even then we’re mostly helping them think through the problem,” she said.
Keating—formerly a lawyer and broadcast journalist before launching a 35-year career in corporate management consulting—works alongside her husband, Charles Keating, owner of Keating Consulting Service, who serves as WSCD president, and their daughter, Merrill, a board member and recipient of USA Today’s prestigious 2024 Women of the Year award.
“Once Charles and I had Merrill, we began to nurture her STEM curiosity and skillset,” Doña said. “This led our family to Seattle’s CoderDojo. The rest is history.”
A founding principle of CoderDojo is “One rule, be cool.” At a recent WCSD session, a 10-year-old boy spontaneously headed to the white board to discuss the coding of his game of world domination. Meanwhile, a second grade Ninja, coding since kindergarten, shared her animation of unicorns running in a field.
