A seventh grader pressed buttons on his laptop keyboard, moving an animated dragon up and down to hit targets on the screen, all while trying to avoid the buildings whizzing past.
Seventh grader Irving Luis-Orozco has gotten fully involved in Edinburgh Middle School’s first Project Lead the Way offerings. The school started offering its Computer Science class this year. Computer Applications will be offered to eighth graders starting next year.
Over the course of nine weeks, Luis-Orozco has programmed two mini-games, both of which involve collecting points by hitting targets on the screen.
Luis-Orozco also programmed a story, including audible dialogue, which involved a fairy, a wizard and three knights.
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On Thursday and Friday, he and other seventh graders presented their projects to representatives from six Edinburgh area businesses: Hisada America, ECA Enterprises, Edmundson RV Sales and Service, Not Just Popcorn, Ditech and Sweet Chiropractic, said Alex Jackson, the school’s Project Lead the Way teacher.
Presenting and writing procedures, or reflections, about the project is a way to not only create something, but explain how it was done, he said.
“They’ve written their procedures, they’ve written down the coding, all the code to make the program work,” Jackson said. “They include what the strengths and weaknesses are. I have them pair up with partners and switch partners. They evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their partner’s project, (and) give each other suggestions.”
The Computer Science class, which is required of all 61 seventh graders, is split into two parts. During the first part, students program those games and write procedures explaining the process. During the second part of the class, which students will soon embark on, they will do some handiwork with technology, including connecting sensors and working with bit boards. Bit boards are miniature versions of the motherboards that contain the principal components of computers, including circuit boards, Jackson said.
In Computer Applications, students will design their own online applications, which will need to function on both computer and mobile platforms, he said.
Another student in the class, Landon Tetrick, created a game that requires the player to use a paddle on the screen to hit a ball, which is located randomly. A person is required to hit a certain number of balls within the time allotted in order to win the game, Tetrick said.
“I didn’t know much about computer science, but I’ve learned a lot,” Tetrick said. “I have a computer programming robot and now that I know how things work. I know how to use it.”
Seventh grader Keyan Fish recreated the classic Pong game, but instead of playing against a computer, two people can play each other using the same keyboard, Fish said.
“Really, I just like working with computers in general,” Fish said. “Coding is fun. I was thinking about working in computer science, but maybe I want to be an engineer.”
One thing that makes computer science great is the ability for every student to learn it, Jackson said.
“Every student can do it,” Jackson said. “It’s about feeding creativity.”
