Sleepover 2.0

By Tina Le

I'll start with explaining how this idea came to my mind. It happened when I first heard about hack-a-thons, I thought: “Super cool!” The first image that came to my mind was an intense environment of people working together to for a common cause, as fast as they could, camping together in sleeping bags, eating free food, and exchanging good humor. In addition, athletes, musicians and actors can get their shared cause, intense teamwork, and pressure to perform on the field, in concerts, or on stage. Techies can get theirs through hack-a-thons.

What about for kids? Maybe Sleepover 2.0!

A kids party version of hack-a-thons.sleepover20 Sleepover 2.0, as I envisioned the idea, is a social event where kids stay up late, munching yummy food and drink, while doing techie-inspired activities.

Activity Ideas

• Play coding board games like Robot Turtles  or 404: Law not found
• Build small robots, like bristlebots! or Quirkbots!
• Arduino has a variety of kits for kids. For example, kids can make a glowing house or flashing greeting cards.
• Maybe present teenagers with a problem, or have them choose a problem. Then during the 2 day sleepover, they would try to solve it. For example, how to make the window curtains open when the alarm goes off, or make a website to help a nonprofit. No grades, no anxiety about failure.

There's just the thrill of a time limit, and the opportunity to apply their imagination and problem solving abilities. This would require more planning, but I imagine it’s worth the fun!