This session the Middle School & High School Eagles are going to be learning about coding.
The Eagles will be learning all of the foundational concepts/terminology of programming. If/then statements, assigning variables, loops, etc. In addition, they will be learning how to run a software organization with agile product development and software project management process, scrum, to help the teams work together to make a great final product, on time! The scrum process includes doing stand-up meetings, taking feedback from “clients”, design reviews and defining work in weekly sprints. And yes, “scrum” is a term taken from rugby.
To help the The Middle School Eagles learn these concepts, they will be making the ACTON ARCADE! Each Eagle will make their own video game based on the theme of their group. Parents and families will be able to play those games at the exhibition and decide which games they would like to invest in.
The High School is going to take it to another level by working in Python to program mini-robots to perform tasks and eventually compete against each other in the Acton Robotic Games. Parents and families will be able to watch each competitor participate in the games. The team with the most points will be the winner! We chose the coding language Python so that the Eagles will learn a practical programming language that they could use in the “real world”, or in a future application. The Eagles will be using Python in combination with sensors (proximity, color, accelerometers, etc) to help them program their robots to complete obstacles.
Both studios are going to be doing Journalism this session for their writer’s workshop. They are going to explore the different types of journalism, choose a type they want to write, and show their work at the exhibition.
Joey & Tyler - MS/HS Guides
