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Friday, May 3, 2019: The First Roblox Class
Friday, May 3, 2019: The First Roblox Class
We kick off the BTC Programming & Computer Science Program Blog with this morning's toast to Andrew, who knocked it out of the park yesterday in his first teaching experience ever.
If you've never taught, imagine running a 90-minute class with students from 2nd to 8th grade, so jacked up on enthusiasm for the online gaming community Roblox that they could barely contain themselves. If you imagined staying on task and ensuring that all students accomplished their learning objectives aided by your warm supportive care and enthusiastic coaching, then perhaps you would not be as impressed as we were -- all of us, including the teacher himself.
In the last five minutes, Andrew asked if there was any feedback about his first day teaching that could help him do better next week. One student gushed, "If this were at my school, it would be the best class I ever took!" And so it likely was.
Read more about this 4-week course , our first (of many) partnership with UVM's 4-H program.
Thursday, May 9, 2019: Nim Combat with JavaScript
Thursday, May 9, 2019: Nim Combat with JavaScript
On Week 2, Andrew and his students moved out of competitive combat and Roblox Studio for a while and into counting combat and JavaScript. After attempting to defeat their neighbors in Nim (photo at left), they dove into their first program code, a computer opponent for Nim.
Students learned about variables, functions, parameters and loops in JavaScript first. Normally, Nim allows a count of 1-3, but what happens when you allow higher counts? How do you win then?
Students then applied these (to varying degrees) to the design and control of their Roblox creations enhanced by cross-scripting. They created new key-binds, adding controls to new weaponry, and changed parameters, making robots either more powerful or dramatically self-destructive.
Students are using a course-specific group within an online gaming community called Discord to communicate between classes, as well as a Roblox-hosted group, both set up by Andrew.
Thursday, May 16, 2019: Building Robots for Combat
Thursday, May 16, 2019: Building Robots for Combat
Thursday, May 23, 2019:
Thursday, May 23, 2019:
Robot Combat Tournament!
Robot Combat Tournament!
Our class finished with an exciting Robot Combat tournament, with a surprise victor!
Although Andrew had quietly accepted a handicap of playing left-handed, it was still a shocker when he "tapped out" against the fiery flamboyance of Ryker's Wheel of the Devil! At right is a video recording of the event.
Afterwards, tournament certificates were shared and celebrated with Oreos.
Project Presentation
Project Presentation
The slide deck at right is Andrew's final presentation. The final slide concerns a sad ending to the project:
A group of bot battlers called Roblox Robot Combat community had developed the battle bot code and rules. The code required updating whenever Roblox core was updated.
The frequency of major updates in the past year proved too much for the RRC community, who disbanded at the end of this year. Andrew was the last active member.
On the positive side, learning to deal with technology change is a life lesson we must all come to grips with. With the end of each project, we develop skills, knowledge and attitudes we can bring to our next investments.
4-H Letter for Andrew Dutil.pdfLetter of Recommendation
Letter of Recommendation
At left is a letter of recommendation Andrew received from Allison Smith of 4H. Most impressive and all well-earned!
We plan to continue offering courses to 4H students next year, through a series based on Dip Your Toe In Code. We will explore two sessions a year, one October 15-November 15, and one for the month of May.
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