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An introduction to coding and gaming for kids.
Problem Statement
Problem Statement
In today's world, artifacts of learning are key for the many applications students have to complete for high schools in New York and eventually, for colleges. Currently, middle school students in Brooklyn schools do not have access to artifact-developing opportunities around coding and game design exploration, despite having interest in potentially exploring this career path. Students in schools need opportunities designed for a hybrid model to accommodate for COVID learning that allows them to explore game design and computer science as potential career paths.
Context
Context
Physical Context:
Physical Context:
Where: Brooklyn, NY. Students can join from the classroom environment or virtually at home. Most students join from the classroom (in-person).
When: During after-school hours, between the hours of 2:30-5:00.
Who: Between 7-15 middle school students per class. These students (or their parents) elected to participate in the course. This is a beginner's course, so students will have limited or no experience with coding.
Physical constraints & affordances: Students need to be able to view either the in-person labs or the virtual labs. Constraints to the availability of the students rely on COVID-19 compliances and technology functions. The course is also limited to using software that is fully accessible on all tools, including Chromebooks. In the environment, the Anker microphone must be able to pick up the voices of all students.
Social Context:
Social Context:
Who: In the physical environment, students and the lead teacher are present. All students have laptops and join the Zoom meeting.
Roles: The role of the lead teacher includes operating and maintaining the technology needed for the lab. Lead teachers are also responsible for leading instruction and guiding students through the lab. Learners' roles include developing portfolios, learning various tech skills, and participation in the lab. Sometimes there is a learning designer present online to assist the class, especially when students go into breakout rooms or there is a guest expert who joins the class.
This program is chosen by the schools, not the parents.
Social interactions/structures: Social interactions that are important to the learner are the interactions between lead teachers and learners. Structures that are important to the leaners include using journals, classroom norms, and formative feedback. There is also a "mindful grounding" at the start of each lesson.
Collaborative games are often used for learning in this context.
*Stakeholder Update* MeshEd recently received a grant from an organization that is funding the Coding & Game Design course summer implementation! Details to come.
Learners
Learners
MeshEd works with a student population of grades 6-12 in Brooklyn schools, primarily STEM-focused schools (though not all schools where our lab will be implemented are STEM-focused). The target learner group for MeshEd's new coding course will be students in grades 5-8.
Shae recently took a survey of students in her Podcasting class with MeshEd, and these were some of their responses, including experience, priorities, and demographics:
Motivations: It is clear from some of these survey results that these students care a lot about creating robust portfolios for their high school and college applications. These students choose to take the course, so they have some intrinsic desire to learn this content.
Challenges: One main challenge is the feasibility of the platform hosting all of the software that would work best. We will need resources and a deep understanding of the goals of the company. We also need student input, and will need to have access to young learners in order to incorporate their feedback.
Since MeshEd is committed to teaching in underserved communities, some of the challenges that this population of students may face include inequitable access to programming and/or a lack of support at home.
Opportunities: Some of these learners have access to great resources at STEM schools, though not all. Our team has a real opportunity to connect with EdTech experts and students, and the possibility of testing our course with real students is an exciting one.
Learning Goals & Objectives
Learning Goals & Objectives
Learning Goals:
Students will learn foundational coding skills that they can apply to build a game.
Students will engage in social and emotional learning through collaboration and storytelling.
Learning Objectives:
Students will demonstrate self-management by describing their goals for the action lab.
Students will demonstrate self-awareness by completing self-assessments that detail actionable self feedback.
Students will demonstrate relationship skills through productive group work and peer feedback.
Students will identify elements of an activity that make it a game.
Students will describe how fundamental coding principles are used in a game.
Students will apply two fundamental coding principles in virtual games on a beginner-level platform.
Students will build a vision board that illustrates the storyline and basic features of a game they would like to design.
Students will connect the coding and game design skills they have developed with future career paths.
Students will design a virtual game on a beginner-level platform that implements game design elements such as narrative, rewards, goals, etc., using the ideas they generated on their vision boards.
Students will develop a basic virtual game based on their designs that incorporates two fundamental coding principles.
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