Grade 8 innovator codes a mission to clean the oceans

That was back in 2020 when Kavu was in Grade 2.

He was among only three selected, out of a pool of about 50, to learn how to code after showing great interest.

“Back then we were just choosing a sprite and a backdrop, and giving it like two blocks so as to make sounds and move,” Kavu, now 16, says.

In computer graphics, a sprite is a 2D image or character that you can programme to move, animate and interact on a screen.

Sprite coding refers to using visual or text-based programming blocks to control these characters, making them the building blocks for digital art, animations, and video games.

As they moved to the next classes, Kavu became more knowledgeable and skilled and could create games and animations.

Now in Grade 8, Kavu sees himself becoming one of the best game and animation creators among his peers.

So when he heard there was a Code Innovators Festival to be held in Mombasa, he quickly came up with a game which he called “Sea Clean-up Mission” for him and his team to present at the Saturday event.

It was organised by Tech Kidz Africa.

“We have created a solution, through a game, which can be used to clean the ocean,” Kavu says.

In the game, the player uses mouse pointer to move the boat across the ocean to collect plastic bottles.

Each bottle represents the life of a sea creature in danger, meaning the more bottles one collects, the more lives the player saves.

The game was created using Scratch.

Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games and animations.

The Grade 8 learner says it took about a week to come up with the game.

“We did not have enough digital devices to complete project in time,” Kavu says.

He says their school lacks digital devices so they have to share the only two laptops available among the 50 learners in the Code Club.

Doris Dzame, a teacher at Kasidi Junior School in charge of the Code Club, said platforms like the Code Innovators Festival, provide an avenue through which the latent talents in learners can be showcased.

“It has been a great moment for me and my learners. I would urge that we have more of these occasions so that our learners can showcase what they know and what they can do,” Dzame says.

The game, under the Animation and Gamification category, is all about saving sea creatures, she says.

In the game, a gamer gets points when they collect plastic bottles that have been carelessly disposed of in the ocean.

“When you collect one bottle, it means you have saved the life of one creature,” Dzame says.

The game has three levels - easy, hard and very hard.

In the hard level, there are obstacles preventing the gamer from collecting the bottles, and they must manoeuvre around the obstacles to collect the bottles, and save lives.

Dzame says the obstacles represent challenges that make it hard to dispose of plastics properly, like the lack of waste bin along the beaches, and the lack of knowledge about environmental conservation among the populace.

The Code Club patron says the game teaches learners the importance of conserving the environment.

“As they play, they learn the importance of cleaning the sea and not dumping waste in the sea because when you dump waste in the sea you are endangering the lives of sea creatures,” she says.

The teacher said platforms such as Code Innovators Festival also give learners confidence.

She said educators identify talented learners but there are other things that they cannot do beyond that, and that is why such platforms provide an opportunity for them to showcase to the world what they can do.

Dzame says for the games to be available for use by other people, they must be converted into an app so they can be downloaded.

“For now, we are just at the stage of creating and from there is when maybe we can convert it into an app so it can be downloaded by others for use,” she says.

Dzame says she is lucky she took over the Code Club when already the learners had some knowledge of coding from the previous teacher, who was a ICT expert.

“I am not an ICT expert. I wasn’t even into ICT when I took over, so some of the things I know today I have learnt from the learners,” she says.

She says teachers who are in charge of some of the clubs like Kasidi’s Code Club need training too because it is not right to always be with such learners but cannot help them when they have problems and need to ask questions.

“If we had platforms where we can be trained, it would help even the learners as we will be their guides,” she says.

She says the challenges they experience in the school also make it more difficult to guide the learners.

“We have this Code Club but we have no devices. We have only two laptops in the school. We do not have the tools needed. That is why the learners only use Scratch and micro:bit,” she says.

She says with more coaching, the learners can diversify and be able to use more advanced programming languages like JavaScript and Python.

Dzame says though she is still in the learning process herself, she helps the learners whenever she can, including buying data for them and lending them her own personal laptop.

Paul Akwabi, the executive director at Tech Kidz Africa and Code Innovators Academy, says contrary to popular belief, Kenyan children are innovative and can come up with innovations that can take the world by storm.

“We are trying to revive the innovation and knowledge that has always been coming ‘through the sea’ to Mombasa and going across the country.

“We have been seeing students who are very innovative from senior schools and junior schools, who’ve created solutions that are able to be even monetised, and make them start earning a decent living,” Akwabi says.

He says they are working with Close The Gap, an charitable organisation, the Education ministry, the Mombasa county government, the Communication Authority of Kenya, among other stakeholders to help the African child in terms of innovation.

“We were expecting 100 learners with innovations but we got 300 instead. The number of people we were expecting was 500 but we got almost a thousand at the festival,” Akwabi says.

He says this points to the interest that Kenyan learners have in matters innovation.

Raruoch Melkio, the Kenya Science and Engineering Fair Mombasa county vice chair, says it is out of such solutions that are practical to humanity that certain problems bedevilling the society can be solved.

He called for patenting of such innovations so that they are not stolen by anyone whenever one works out.

“These are minors but are coming up with innovations. If these innovations are not patented, they may be hijacked by those who have the money. Then the innovators may not benefit monetarily from their own innovations,” Melkio says.