Enthusiastic Coders

On Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons a determined bunch of enthusiastic coders turn up in the coding room to explore the coding sites and work together to problem solve. We are looking forward to seeing what they create this term.

Pukaki at Coding

Pukaki students have been working hard to get through some Tynker lessons over the past two weeks. They have learnt concepts such as keyboard control, adding logic and positioning actors as well as how to keep a score and how to use the show and hide blocks effectively. Next week we will be using these concepts to create a simple game.

Coding Term 4 2015

Today we had our first lesson - we didn’t really know what coding was so we watched a short film which explained it.

What is Coding?

We all signed in to Tynker and got started straight away. All of us did Tynker workshop  and  in those lessons we learnt how to use the code blocks to position actors, make them glide across the screen,  and put music in the background.

Coding was actually quite challenging and it pushed our brains to the limits

I’m looking forward to making my own game after a few more lessons.

Now that you have an idea of what Coding is here are some pictures of students cracking codes!

By Harvest Beaufill (Tunohopu 2)

Sumo Slam!

We have been completing games over the past few weeks and here is another outstanding example by Kiwa Johnstone in Pukaki 4. Help the onion(!) avoid the flying heads while collecting the coins!

If you would like to play more of our students' games, go to the Projects Page of the Coding website and click on the whanau links for more.

Year 6 Orientation

The past 2 days have been very busy as our school has been showing the year 6 students from our contributing schools through our Pathways programme. They have been doing activities in Coding, Minecraft Design, Graphic Design, Music Performance, Design & Construction, Performance Media, E-Learning, Culinary Arts and Adolescent Health.

We have held 40 minute sessions where students have been doing Astronaut Training, Candy Quest and Dragon Dash. These RIS experts (below) have worked hard to show our visitors how we use Tynker to learn to code in a fun way!

Taeotu Games:

We had an exciting morning where everyone was trying to complete their games ready to put up on our Coding Website.  We played and tested each others games to critique them and help the designers get to that perfect point - challenging without being too difficult!

This cool game was created by Grace Punter in Taeotu 2 - watch out for the sharp looking purple fish in the centre!!

New Games!

All of the coding students have been creating games for the past two weeks. They all spent some time planning what their games would be like - what theme they would use, what each actor would be like and what it would have to do in the game. They also had to consider how they would add and subtract from the score and what event would end the game. They have had a lot of fun deciding what sound effects to use to add another dimension.

Watch the Coding website for new games as they are completed - under each whanau on the "Projects" page....  You can play them there!

This game is by Ella Hill TeRoro 3.....

Hurunga Students Creating Games

The Hurunga students are now working hard to create their first games in Coding. They have all been given a set of criteria to meet and have planned out what they want to achieve. They are excited about their projects - watch out for them on the projects page soon!

"I have enjoyed making a game instead of just playing a game" Stephen

"I have programmed all my actors to eat the turtles and avoid the octopus while collecting points" Matthew

"I have had fun making my games today - I enjoy being able to make whatever I want" Matiu

Celebrating Excellence in Coding:

Last week we had our Pathways Prizegiving and Celebration - this happens every 6 months and we award badges for excellence in each subject. 

Coding requires students to be adept at problem solving, computational thinking and creativity. These awards recognize the effort these students have put into their lessons and the excellent results they have achieved. 

Congratulations to the following students who attained these badges in Coding:

Tyler,

Mikayla, Ethan,

Jaymee, Isaiah, Chloe and Xavier

Term Three 2015

Term three coding classes have got off to a great start. The students have been working their way through a set of Tynker lessons, in order to build up their coding skills. They are excited about what they have been able to achieve in such a short time!

We have been focussing on how to solve problems independently. Students are encouraged to persevere with any problems they encounter before moving on to other strategies such as using Tynker Help and discussing their challenges with their peers.