Computer Science Education Week

In this past week in Help Desk, it was Computer Science Education Week. We had many activities for the students to do,  and on some of the days Apple and Microsoft had come and done demonstrations i.e. Windows Mixed Reality. We also had students use a program called Processing, and follow the tutorials given on the website and just play around with the code used in it. (https://processing.org/tutorials/)

Something a student made with Processing

Students trying out Mixed Reality

We also had a group of students go on a field trip to the middle school, to show the 8th grade students some of the basics of computer science, and how it can be used in the world. We showed them a basic video about computer science, and showed them what we were going to be doing with them on their chrome books. The students were understanding and didn't really need much help on it, the biggest problem that we had was getting everyone to the correct website and from then on they didn't really need any help with the program. On the website, the students used block coding and created sprites, and created basic functions, like moving the sprites and making them say things in a text box. 

At the middle school, with the 8th graders in their chairs and the seniors giving a presentation about computer science

Everything that I was there for seemed to be going pretty well, except how long it took to get everyone in the classes working on some of the things we showed. The thing that I think could have been done better is to not have the students use their own devices for it, because in doing that it requires them to all download an app, and open it and find where to be, and that already takes up some of the already minimal time that we have with it. In my mind, ideally we would have iPads, Macs, or Chrome books ready in-app so the students can just take one of those and then listen to directions for 1-2 minutes instead of 5-10+ and still having trouble finding the app or whatever they need to set up.