September 6, 2018
By Kelli Gile, WVUSD Office of Community Resources
DIAMOND BAR, CA--South Pointe Middle School 7thgraders are immersed in learning coding concepts in a STEAM 2 course.
This week, students have been busy designing interactive stories and games with Scratch, an online programming community.
“All students, some having no experience with coding, are given an opportunity to be creative with the smallest of details about their game or story and it is amazing to see what they can do,” said technology teacher Crystal Dira.
Students have been experimenting with ideas as they drag and drop programming blocks to create movement and animation effects.
“Our project is like a Flappy Bird game,” Trey Rosales and Jas Singh explained on Wednesday.
“There’s a bat that’s traveling across these trees while trying to get to the end of the level,” Rosales said.
Another design team, Helena Tran and Aayati Sangal, collaborated to create a catching game with balls and meow sound-effects.
“You can’t catch the orange ball!” Sangal exclaimed.
Throughout the year, students will participate in numerous hands-on activities and projects that integrate the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.
STEAM 2 students will also be coding robots along with stop-motion animation, music, and short story videos.
The class has been designed to expose students to both to Engineering/Computer Science and Video Production which are two different paths in Technology available for 8thgrade students.
“They really are using technology to create their future,” Dira said.
Shown:
South Pointe Middle School 7th grade students Trey Rosales and Jas Singh, shown with teacher Crystal Dira, design a coding game with Scratch on September 5.
Imagine, Design and Innovate! South Pointe Middle School students learning coding in STEAM 2 course.