The learning track
Members work through The Odin Project — a free, open-source web development curriculum used by people teaching themselves to code all over the world. You go at your own pace; the club is who you go with.
O'Fallon Township High School 2026–27
Learn to build
real software.Ship it here.
A student-run computer science club. In the fall you learn web development with a free, world-class curriculum and hear from people who do this for a living. In the spring, the club builds and launches something OTHS actually uses.
No experience assumed · $0 · runs in a browser tab on your Chromebook
- Meets
- Every other week, after school
- Length
- About an hour
- Cost
- $0, nothing to buy
- Gear
- Your school Chromebook
- Open to
- Every grade, any experience
// The club
Two halves, one year.
Fall is for learning. Spring is for building. Meeting time is for getting unstuck and working next to each other — not sitting through lectures.
Guest speakers
Working software developers, OTHS alumni in the field, and local professionals, a few times a semester. Fewer slideshows, more honest answers about what the job is actually like.
Build sessions
In the spring, meetings turn into working sessions on a real project for the school, with code reviewed by the whole group. You leave with something on the internet that has your name on it.
// The path
What you'll know by May.
Keep scrolling — the line traces the year, one stop at a time.Five stops, September to May. Nobody expects you to arrive knowing any of it; the curriculum starts at the very beginning, and so does everyone else in the room.
stop 1 of 5 — Foundations
SEPhow the web works
Foundations
What actually happens when you type a URL. How to move around a computer with text instead of clicks. Setting up your environment in the browser — no installs, no admin password, nothing touching a district device.
You'll be able to
Open a real dev environment, run commands, and explain the difference between a client and a server without hand-waving.
OCTmaking pages look right
HTML & CSS
Structure, then style. Flexbox and grid, the two layout systems every site on the internet is built out of, plus making things work on a phone as well as a laptop.
You'll be able to
Rebuild a page you like from scratch, and make it hold together at any screen size.
NOVmaking pages do things
JavaScript
Variables, functions, and loops, but aimed at something: clicking, typing, searching, and pulling real data in from somewhere else on the internet.
You'll be able to
Build something interactive — a search box that filters a list, a form that validates itself, a small game.
JANworking on a team
Git & GitHub
How professional teams actually ship: branches, pull requests, code review, and undoing the thing you broke. This is the part that makes the spring project possible.
You'll be able to
Contribute to a shared codebase without stepping on anyone, and read someone else's code well enough to review it.
SPRINGfor the school
Ship something real
The club picks one thing OTHS is missing and builds it together — small enough to actually finish, useful enough to be worth finishing. Deployed, on the internet, used by people who aren't in the club.
You'll be able to
Point at a live site and say you built it. That sentence is worth more than any grade on a college application.
// Speakers
People who do this for a living.
A few times a semester, someone from outside the building comes in: working developers, OTHS alumni now in the field, and local professionals. Bring the questions you'd never get to ask in class.
Work in software and want to speak? Say so in the terminal below.
Photo this fall
Photo this fall
Photo this fall
// Straight answers
The things people actually worry about.
No. Most members will start with none, and the curriculum starts from zero on purpose. The first meeting assumes you have never opened a code editor.
Your school Chromebook is enough. We write code in GitHub Codespaces, which runs in a browser tab — nothing gets installed, and nothing needs a district password.
One hour every other week, after school. Work outside meetings is up to you — some members do a lot, some do none and still get something out of the room. It fits around a sport or a season.
No. Building a website is a useful skill for a future business owner, journalist, engineer, artist, or nurse. Come find out whether you like it — that is a completely legitimate reason to join.
Leadership positions are reserved for freshmen and sophomores from the first semester on. The point is that trained officers are ready before the founders graduate — this club is built to outlast the people starting it.
Nothing. Every tool the club uses is free, including the curriculum. There are no dues, no materials to buy, and no travel.
// Sign up
Your first four lines of input.
Type your answer, press Enter. Four questions, then you're on the list for the first meeting.
Prefer a plain form? Open the interest form directly.
Discord
Invite link goes here once the charter is approved
First meeting
Date and room to be announced in September
Find us in person
Panther Connects, at the activity fair