Logan Carter (left) and Patrick Kolcan write code for their Star Wars game.
LAKE FOREST—Everett Elementary School fourth grader Logan Carter loves to play video games but does not get to play them on school days. That changed — temporarily — on Dec. 16 when Carter and the rest of Everett’s students spent an hour not just playing video games but writing the code to design their own. The event was part of a worldwide Hour of Code effort to promote computer science education by getting students to spend an hour programming.
“They’re learning and writing code,” said Susie Oh, Everett’s information literacy instructor. “It’s about critical thinking skills and logic. They are learning 21st century skills.”
Oh said not only Everett, but all students in Lake Forest School District 67 were participating in the project for the third consecutive year. Sheridan and Cherokee elementary schools as well as Deer Path Middle School took part last week.
Everett fourth grade teacher Catherine Sheehan builds a game along with her students.
After watching an instructional video on their Chromebooks, the students in Catherine Sheehan’s fourth grade classroom went to work designing a game based on “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” or Minecraft. She said most chose Star Wars.
“They go step by step starting at the first level creating their game,” Sheehan said as she did the project herself. “They can make (the character) go left or right or in a circle. They try to get to the highest level.”
Carter, who wants to design video games as an adult, started at the end, not the beginning. In this case the student knew a little more than the teacher.
“First I went to the last level so I best know how to play it and design it,” Carter said. “I want to design video games when I grow up so I want to know what to do. I want to tell myself what should be in the game.”
Alexia Akintade designs a Star Wars game on her computer.
While Carter is a fan of video games, the student recognizes the difference between designing one and merely playing. Carter was thrilled to get some career training in school and do something many parents prohibit at home except on weekends or holidays.
“This is very cool,” Carter said, trying to make it easier for R2-D2 to ward off storm troopers. “I can only play at home on non- school days. This is harder than (just) playing a game but it’s what I want to do.”
When Everett Principal Angela Sopko heard about Carter’s enterprising effort with the game, she said it was an example of what can happen when a student is given the opportunity to thrive.
“We want to give our students an opportunity to be challenged,” Sopko said. “This shows an inquiring brain.”
Maya Rhoads works on her game.
As Maya Rhoads progressed from level to level of the Star Wars game she said it was more challenging than playing a video game because of the necessity of building it along the way.
“I like doing this,” Rhoads said. “It was hard at first but now I’m getting it.
As the children built the Star -Wars game from level to level, they noticed the characters changing. As the game progresses, the students have to help one of the new droids, BB-8, navigate through the landscape. At one point, BB-8 is no longer there and R2-D2 appears.
“I just saw it was R2-D2,” Patrick Kolcan said. “You have to add things at each level. It’s harder than a game but it’s cool to be doing it in school.”
“I’m learning how to code so it’s problem solving more than a game,” Alexia Akintade added.
Lake Forest City Manager Robert Kiely Jr. and Everett Information Literacy Specialist Susie Oh work with Everett kindergartners during hour of code.