Green Belt: Python, Drones & AI
Python, Drones & AI in Wellesley
Real Python, flying hardware, and machine learning that does something.
- Boston Parents Family Favorite seven years running
- Macaroni Kids Favorite 2026
- FIRST LEGO League & VEX Judges Award
- State finalists, FLL & VEX
- STEM.org accredited
- CSTA & NGSS aligned
Not a drop-in coding club. A ten-month program with a cohort, a competition team, and a monthly report that shows you exactly what your child built and why it mattered.
What your child leaves with
A portfolio
Working apps, games, robots and websites they built themselves — not a certificate of attendance. Everything is saved to their own profile.
A team
The route into our VEX and FIRST LEGO League competition teams, with a real season, a capped roster and tournament results.
A transcript
A written report every month explaining what they covered, the concept behind it, and what comes next. A fuller one at the end of each belt.
Green Belt · iCode of Wellesley2026/27 year
Python, Drones & AI — the Green Belt
- Time
- Two hours a week, same day and time, across the ten-month program
- Group size
- Around six students to one instructor
- Length
- Ten months to complete a belt. Most students go on to the next one. 80 hours of instruction across the year.
- Start dates
- New cohorts in September, November, January and April. Seats are capped.
- Stage
- Typically ages 9 and up
- Entry
- After a text-coding foundation. Placement by evaluation.
- Reports
- A written report every month, and a fuller one at the end of each belt — see a real one
- Location
- 73 Central Street, Wellesley
See Green Belt class times
Book a free evaluation
Not sure this is the right belt? The free evaluation exists to answer exactly that — we place by what a student can do, never by age alone.
This is where programming stops being a subject and starts being a tool. Students write Python that flies a DJI drone, then Python that reads data, then Python that trains a model. The drone is not a gimmick — it is the fastest way we have found to make a nine-year-old care whether their loop terminates.
The back half moves onto Arduino and electronics, so students finish having controlled something in the air and something on a breadboard. Object-oriented programming, algorithms and data science sit underneath all of it.
What students actually learn
- Python 3 — real syntax, real error messages, real debugging
- Machine learning and AI, built rather than demonstrated
- Data science — loading, cleaning and drawing conclusions from actual data
- Microcontrollers and electrical engineering with Arduino
- Object-oriented programming and algorithms
The year, sprint by sprint
The Green Belt runs in sprints across the school year, each one building on the last and ending in a final project.
- Introduction to Python with Drones
- Advanced Drone Programming
- Algorithms in Python
- Data Science
- Intro to OOP in Python
- Machine Learning and AI
- Arduino
- Arduino II
- Arduino III
What they finish with
- Autonomous drone flight they programmed
- Working electrical engineering builds
You will know exactly what your child learned
Most parents six weeks into a coding class cannot say what their child has actually learned. A written report arrives every month: the topics covered, the concept behind each one in plain language, what your child actually built, where they found it easy and where they had to push, an instructor’s specific observation, and what is coming next. At the end of the belt there is a longer completion report — the whole ten months as a narrative, the skills portfolio, the capstone, and the natural next step.
The competition team runs alongside it
Our VEX and FIRST LEGO League teams are not a separate Saturday activity. A team place runs parallel to the belt, so the season feeds the same progress record — the robot goes in the portfolio and the season goes on the transcript. Rosters are capped and we hold the cap.
- Entry — FIRST LEGO League Explore · VEX IQ intro. Grades 2–4, About 16 weeks, 1.5 hours a week.
- Core — FIRST LEGO League Challenge · VEX IQ competitive. Grades 4–8, About 20 weeks, two hours a week.
- Advanced — VEX V5. Grades 8–12, About 20 weeks, two hours a week, eight students to one coach.
A place is conditional on being an enrolled student, and tryouts run in September. See the teams, rosters and season dates.
The question parents actually ask
“Is the AI part real, or is it ChatGPT with extra steps?”
Both, honestly, and the distinction matters. Students use ChatGPT as a working programmer does — to move faster and to check themselves — and separately they build machine learning models and see why the predictions come out as they do. One is a tool they will use for life. The other is the understanding that stops the tool using them.
If it is not working
Four sessions — about a month — then decide.
If your child is not engaged after four sessions, tell us and we refund the balance and release the seat.
How this differs from a club
A club is one hour a week for ten weeks, in a larger group, on a single topic — a good way to start and a good second activity. The Belt Program is two hours a week across a ten-month year, in a group of about six, with a written progress report every month and a capstone project. It is the deeper commitment and the one most families end up in. See the clubs if you would rather start smaller.
If two hours a week is too much right now
Studio — One hour a week, ongoing. A flexible, AI-driven path with its own milestones, supervised by an instructor. The on-ramp for families who cannot give us two hours a week yet. Students move across to a belt when they are ready. It is a different product rather than a shorter belt, which is what keeps the belt itself meaning the same thing for every student who finishes one.
Questions
Does my child need Python before starting?
No, but they should be comfortable with the idea of typed code. Students coming from Scratch or a block-based background are usually ready. A free evaluation settles it in twenty minutes.
Do students actually fly the drones?
Yes, in the center, and they program the flight rather than piloting it by hand. That is the part that makes the debugging feel urgent.
Does this lead anywhere formal?
It is the strongest preparation we have for the Black Belt and for AP Computer Science. Contest work — ACSL, USACO — runs from the same base.
Where you’ll be
iCode of Wellesley · 73 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02482
781-291-3131
Five minutes from Wellesley Middle School and a short drive from Schofield, Bates, Hardy, Hunnewell and Upham. Street parking on Central Street, plus the Municipal Way lot behind the building for pickup.
Ready to start?
Book a free evaluation and we will tell you honestly which belt your child belongs in — or go straight to the Green Belt class times.
Book a free evaluation
See Green Belt class times
The ten belts, in order
Students move up the ladder as they are ready, not on a timetable. Most join partway up — the free evaluation is how we work out where.
- Junior Belt — Junior STEAM
- Foundation Belt — Scratch Coding & AI Foundations
- White Belt — Robotics, VEX & 3D Printing
- Gray Belt — Minecraft & Roblox Coding
- Orange Belt — Web Development & Design
- Yellow Belt — Mobile App Development
- Green Belt — Python, Drones & AI — you are here
- Red Belt — Game Development
- Blue Belt — Networking & Cybersecurity
- Black Belt — Java & AP Computer Science
