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Coding to A-Maze

Collaborative library spaces become scene of robot races
Students in the Discover Your Tech elective took over the collaborative learning spaces in the Ethel Powell Library last week to stage a series of robotics-based maze challenges. Using Sphero devices and iPads, the student teams wrote instructional code in Scratch and Javascript to guide the BB8-like rolling robots through the mazes.

“It’s a great example of the kind of project-based learning that the Discover Your Tech class is all about,” says Laurie Pierce, DYT instructor and technology facilitator. The assignment, to “build a maze and code your way through it,” sounds deceptively simple, but students quickly discovered a series of decisions and challenges to overcome.

Parker Woolwine, a student in the class, said he enjoyed applying what he has learned about coding in a hands-on way. “Ms. Pierce helps us learn the science behind it with quizzes that help us learn the vocabulary,” he said, “but then it’s up to us to make up the code and choose from all the options.”

Discover Your Tech is a survey course designed to introduce students to the technology available to students at Trinity. The course teaches basic computer skills as well as providing exposure to advanced tech opportunities. In addition to the robot-maze coding project, students learn how to utilize their school-assigned computer, program a computer game, design and print a 3D object, code and develop an app and create a digital movie.

All of these options are available to students in a recently refurbished Innovation Lab and maker-space within the Ethel Powell Library.
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Trinity Episcopal School

3850 PITTAWAY DR | RICHMOND VA 23235-1099 | Phone: 804.272.5864 | Fax: 804.272.5865 Email: mail@trinityes.org