The Software Development Lifecycle project with Deutsche Bank was an opportunity for Computer Science Discoveries students to learn about the software development cycle and related professions. This project allowed students to practice working within a peer group, strengthen their computer science and coding abilities, and sharpen their presentation skills in front of an audience of classmates, teachers, and Deutsche Bank employees.

Students were presented with a goal and a problem to solve: Create a game that will meet user specifications, but to do so you must work within given constraints. During the project, students took on the roles of software developers as they engaged in planning (Business Analyst), designing (team + Project Manager), coding (Developer), and testing (Quality Assurance) a solution for problem-statement provided by Deutsche Bank. They then presented their finished products to Deutsche Bank employees who visited their classroom for the project finale. The presentations were all very impressive!

This is just one of the projects through which RCMMS has teamed up with Deutsche Bank’s DB Global Technologies, Inc. division to offer students real-world collaboration and programming opportunities. RCMMS students are benefiting in many ways from this active partnership and this project continues annually.

Just Follow the Algorithm

Students must use computational thinking to meet their goal of writing a detailed, effective algorithm to successfully prepare and eat cereal and milk from a bowl. Students worked in groups to come up with algorithmic processes that were extremely thorough, and our lucky testers, Mr. Sellers and Mrs. Guilford, were able to test those processes out. Did groups find ways to refine their algorithms after testing? Yes! The class decided, for example, that it would be much better to move the “open your mouth” command from its original place as Step 1 all the way to the end of the process when milk and cereal are already on the spoon and the spoon is being lifted. Adjusting the algorithms made all the difference. Breakfast is served!