The Swift Current Library showcased how learning does not restrict itself to books last Saturday, with a futuristic yet simplistic expose on computer coding.

As part of National Science Week, the library opened its doors to Joe Collinson, a local man who runs an extracurricular coding club, to teach science with coding.

This year's National Science Literacy Week featured a curriculum for kids based off of a particular book called To Burp Or Not to Burp: A Guide to Your Body.

The book discusses the science of burping in space, picked for the curriculum due to a Canadian astronaut being sent to space this November, hoping to get kids interested by connecting the science to real-world events.

Collinson said that he thought it was important to get children interested in science because it is a good starting point for education.

"My personal feeling is it's the background of everything, it's between that and math," he briefly stated. "It just gives you a greater appreciation of how the world works, how you look at things, and how you perceive different things, and you can take that into any career you want. For me, it's really the foundation of any solid education."

The book was tied back to computer science by using a program developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called Scratch, which is a free simplified coding program for kids.

Collinson made a scenario in the program that would emulation of what would happen if you burped in space, the result of which is the possibility of burping up food instead of stomach gasses.

When talking about Scratch, Collinson said that by presenting coding in a very simple and fun way, he hoped kids would take an interest in coding.

"Kids can be interested in anything. I think the way that they're looking at this, it's a very simple way to get started specifically in programming, it's very fun and entertaining, and once the kids start to see that, then they will just run on their own, and start learning without even knowing that they are learning by programming games, and doing stuff that's fun and interesting for them, without really catching on that they're learning and training themselves how to do things beyond what we're doing here today."

The program was free to attend for children who were interested in the program.

When asked about the importance of free educational programs similar to the ones he provided, Collinson said that it was an important thing to make sure is provided to children.

"It's just another avenue for them to do fun exciting things that are maybe related to school, but are not directly tied to make it feel like school work, as well as keeping costs down so it is not a barrier to entry, so education like this for these kids getting started absolutely should be free and encouraged."