Working with code
Victor Sammurtok School students learn to program their own computer games
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
CHESTERFIELD INLET
Students at Victor Sammurtok School (VSS) in Chesterfield Inlet were introduced to the world of computer code during a visit to the school by the Code Club earlier this month.
Herman Aggark is having a blast designing his own computer game during a Coding Club visit to Victor Sammurtok School in Chesterfield Inlet - photo courtesy of Glen Brocklebank |
The leaders for the Coding Club who worked with the students were Evan Despault of the Pangnirtung-based Pinnguaq Association and Taha Tabish of the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre in Iqaluit.
Code Club projects gradually introduce coding concepts to allow children to build their knowledge incrementally, meaning there's no need for the adult running the session to be a computing expert and the material is both grade- and skill-appropriate for the students involved.
VSS teacher Ana Leishman said the Code Club's visit came about as a result of community funding obtained by the hamlet.
She said when Despault and Tabish arrived at the school, they asked for three or four senior students to be the facilitators.
"They trained the facilitators for two days and taught them how to make simple computer-program games," said Leishman.
"They came up with a number of their own games during that time, which the kids said were awesome.
"The rest of the week they had students from Grade 2 all the way to Grade 12 in the computer lab with them, about 15 kids in all, showing them how to make their own computer-program games.
"I went in and played one game they came up with, in which you had to get through a maze in a boat."
Leishman said the students were totally immersed in the program and wanted to show everyone the games they came up with.
She said the two Code Club leaders also had the students learning how to incorporate various aspects of real-life experience into their computer games.
"They took the kids into the gym and had them playing physical games to get them thinking about the elements and the purpose of a game.
"It was like, what are you trying to do in this game and how do you bring that to your computer game?
"The two guys who came in (Despault and Tabish) were both super enthusiastic, really easy-going and focused on building excitement around the program.
"It was really amazing to us that the hamlet was able to secure this type of program for the school and we appreciate the effort."
Leishman said when she became aware of how the process worked, she left it up to the individual teachers to pick the students to participate.
She said she didn't want to see students randomly selected to the program, which, in all probability, will be a one-time delivery at VSS.
"The teachers know their students really well, so they kind of figured out which of the students were really into computers when they go to the computer lab and which ones would really get a lot out of the program.
"It's also the type of program the kids can carry on with after the instructors leave because they installed all the software related to it onto our computers in the lab.
"So, the kids can go in there during their spare time at school and create things.
"They left VSS two laptops to keep that also have all the programs installed on them, so, if there are some kids who want to start running a Code Club on their own, time will be made available to them after school to create games, which a lot of the senior kids thought would be something they might get interested in once we finish with the Kivalliq Regional Science Fair at the end of this month."
