This school year, Alex Hennings joined the AfterSchool crew to lead computer programming activity sessions. Students have been learning how to code with JavaScript by making small games.
Each session has varied. During the last session, students worked on creating a game with a spaceship. The spaceship uses fuel to fly around and the player needs to reach the next fuel barrel before they run out. “I’ve really enjoyed leading the session because I get to pretend that I’m a kid, play with technology, and help little people grow,” shared Alex.
“Kids have been endlessly positive and curious. And being a small part of the friends community has been a highlight!”
A few middle school students shared a few thoughts about the AfterSchool sessions so far.
“I really liked making a game. I didn’t know how to before taking the class. But I now I do.”
“We made a spaceship game where you get points if you fuel the spaceship. And you lose points if you go too far without fueling or if a triangle touches you.” – Fifth-grade student
“I didn’t really know what JavaScript is. I was surprised that we had to use this website from scratch. But now I know all about codes in JavaScript. It’s pretty cool.” – Sixth-grade student
“Alex is awesome and so is coding.” – Fifth-grade student
“It was really hard. It made my brain hurt. But I got to learn JavaScript. There isn’t a lot of math when you are playing a computer game. But there is way more math than I thought there would be when you are making the game. It’s complicated but fun.” – Sixth-grade student
“We made a game, you had to move this ball to a different spot. It was really hard and my first time doing something like it. I’m excited about trying it again in the next session. It’ll be my second time doing something like it.” – Fifth-grade student