Burlington High School just had its Hour of Code / Computer Science Week. In addition to special demonstrations from Apple and Microsoft professionals, all Help Desk periods also helped run programming activities for visiting classes.
Trying Microsoft’s Virtual Reality Demo: the graphics are not super realistic and the hand controls are clunky, but the physics are pretty realistic. Some games were made using Unity, the game-engine we learning about in Help Desk and Programming and Technology Club. Unfortunatly, I only got to try augmented reality, but I plan to go to the mall’s Microsoft store and experiencing the HoloLens.
Helping Ms. Palmer’s Coding Class Run Processing:
Together, we went through the first tutorial and basic setup of the Java Processing programs. Then students went on their own, experimenting with provided tutorials and watching a Coding Train Demo I set up on the monitor.
Middle School Coding Demo:
I also went down to the middle school and helped run a short lesson on Processing. Here are some resources I sent to Mr. Carroll, the middle school’s technology adviser.
Running Processing:
- Laptops/Desktops: quick download for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X (https://processing.org/download/)
- iPads/iPhones: from the AppStore, search for “Processing iCompiler”
- Android and PI: have not tested this, but they are options
- Browser: trinket.io supports Processing.py (Python) libraries (https://trinket.io/python/a10acb232a), this is fairly new but requires no download, some functions require typecasting inputs when running on Chrome
References For Learning Processing:
- Reference Library (https://processing.org/reference/): a well-organized library of all Processing functions with sample code, I have linked the Java library; all the other reference libraries are also on the website
- Processing’s basic tutorials (https://processing.org/tutorials/): provide copy paste code and overview of how to set up applications
- Daniel Shiffman / Coding Train (https://www.youtube.com/user/shiffman/playlists): he is one of the main developers of Processing, he publishes tutorials and challenge videos that are pretty interesting and fun to follow along with, this is where I learned most of my Java and programming basics
Other Coding Projects: Coding Abbey (https://www.codeabbey.com/index/task_list) has a list of simple to advanced coding challenges. You can submit answers in several languages, and the computer checks it. It also introduces students to more advanced topics and cool math problems.
Overall, I think the week went pretty well; I like the hands-on aspect to running coding lessons, and I do think that the the experience is very helpful for students who would not otherwise be exposed to fun educational technologies.
Suggestions:
Not a lot of humanities teachers came down, and in the middle school, teachers were asking if there was a way to integrate technology and coding into English and Social Studies classes. A possible solution to getting more humanities teachers to come is running a special Technology Week for humanities classes specifically, and introducing game design and interactive map software. We have to find an easy technology for those first.
Also, more teachers might come we talk to them personally, as those visits are more memorable than an email or flyers.
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