One of our extra-curricular activities is Video Game Design where students are challenged to be thinkers and problem solvers. Every week, students tackle programming challenges in the form of puzzles. They are given a clear objective as well as the pieces to the puzzle and they must put these pieces in the correct order to solve the challenge.
As they progress through more difficult challenges, they learn about conditional statements, variables, flow control, and location and movement on a coordinate plane.
When asking for help, students will often hear their teachers reply, “Wrestle with the problem,” because the most lasting learning experiences often come through overcoming struggle. Some approaches to learning we practice in this class are observing carefully in order to recognize problems, applying skills and knowledge in unfamiliar situations, and persevering through challenges. We look forward to games and holiday greetings created by our young programmers.
