07/08/2026
We've answered some FAQ'S about the STEM Showdown.
If you have questions that we've missed, please get in touch with us.
Codergarten
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Codergarten is here to introduce and provide learning space for tech curious kids. Based in Bendigo, Victoria (Australia).
We conduct code camps and code sessions with collaboration in local organizations.
07/08/2026
05/08/2026
Four weeks into term 3, our Comic Club course kids with Ginny Jeong, are getting very creative with their designs and stories. They explored how different face shapes depict emotions, completed stories and started creating their own (of course, there were farts in the stories).
We can't wait to see their final ideas come to life.
04/08/2026
Every family has one........
A jar, drawer or container full of random things that somehow appears over time! (we have more than one but I love it when I find some 💰)
But what if you had to sort it without touching everything inside?
Your mission at the Family STEM Showdown is to design a tool that can retrieve, sort and solve the mystery of the "Jar of Junk" using science, creativity and engineering.
Will your invention work?
03/08/2026
🫀How well does your team know the human body?
❤ Can you find the heart?
🫁 Place the lungs?
🦴 Vonnect the body systems?
Sounds easy.......
Now try doing it together under the pressure of a STEM challenge.
Join us at the family STEM Showdown and discover just how incredible the human body really is.
02/08/2026
🚀 Chase the Sun 🌞
Think your team can program your Ozobot to win the race at our Family STEM Showdown?
Not so fast...
This challenge has a twist that changes everything. It's not just about speed—it's about strategy, teamwork, and a little bit of space science.
Get your teams ready for the challenge
National Science Week
Ozobot
01/08/2026
In this week's Codergarten session, Grade 4 students tackled a scaled-down Traveling Salesman Problem using Ozobot EVO robots.
Rather than teaching an algorithm by name, we let students discover the trade-offs themselves:
* Going to the closest house first feels like the smart move — but it can leave you with a long last stretch and a worse total time
* A simple visual trick — if two roads on your route cross, uncross them — made routes shorter without any maths at all
The result was second-order thinking in action — students learned that the locally obvious choice isn't always the globally optimal one, and that testing your own strategy is a skill in itself.
This is the kind of hands-on computational thinking we curate in our courses.
30/07/2026
🤔 What makes a bridge strong?
Is it the size?
The materials?
The shape?
Or is there something clever hiding in the design?
Watch our Ozobot take on the Death Drop 🤖⬇️
At Family STEM Showdown, your family will become bridge engineers. You'll design, build, test and improve your bridge until it can handle the challenge.
(That is exactly what we did in one of our adventure park themed ozobot course - we tried, we tested, we failed, we improved and we tried again)
27/07/2026
Today was the first session of the Computer Science course at the Bendigo Library, the session started with a role-playing activity.
The children took turns playing three different roles:
👩💻 The Programmer – giving the instructions
🧪 The Tester – checking whether the instructions worked
🤖 The Bot – following the instructions exactly as they were given
Through this activity, the students explored the idea of an algorithm — a set of instructions for completing a task.
They quickly discovered that the order of the instructions matters. This is called sequence.
Computers are very good at following instructions, but they don't guess what we mean. If an instruction is missing, unclear or in the wrong order, the result might not be what we expected!
Want to try it at home? 🥪
Ask your child to give you step-by-step instructions for making a sandwich — and then follow their instructions exactly as they give them!
You might be surprised by what happens when an instruction is missing or out of order. 😄
It's a simple, fun way to start thinking like a computer scientist!
25/07/2026
Will your team win the robot race round in the Family STEM Showdown?
You have to code your way to the finish line.
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Bendigo, VIC