TRANSITION YEAR PROGRAM
Transition Year Coding Program
We are providing coding classes for Transition Year that fulfill the core objective of the Department of Education during Transition Year, which is to promote Maturity.
Maturity by being self-directed learners, maturity by developing work related skills, personal maturity with communication skills, social maturity with improved 'people' skills and maturity that will help the students make informed choices about their leaving cert options.
The classes can be implemented as an individual term long module or a full year long course.
During the single term course, over 12 weeks we are teaching the fundamentals and core skills of coding, including variables, loops and classes through the making of a video game in GameMaker 2.
The full year course
is composed of a single 40 minute class every week during the term. The course is broken into 3 sections.
1st
In the first section the class are taken through the how to build a video game (Asteroids) in the drag & drop visual language of GameMaker. Each class begins with a description of what we will be covering that day, and an explanation of any new concepts (variables, loops etc..). The emphasis is on creating a working game while introducing the fundamentals of programming.
2nd
The second section involves building the Asteroids game again but this time using the text based GML which is similar to both Python & C. In this section the focus is on working in a text base environment. Getting everybody familiar working with the syntax and naming conventions of code. The depth and complexity that is put into the game will depend on the students abilities.
3rd
In the third section the class will be working on group projects. Ideally the teams would be composed of some individuals from another school that is also doing the CoderCraft course.
The focus in this part of the course is repeating, therefore bedding down, the coding knowledge of previous sections with a strong emphasis on how to work in a Team. Communication, recording changes, delegation and managing responsibilities. If team members are in a different school email and google meet would be used to facilitate communication.
We believe in Learning by doing.
Details
Every child needs access to a computer. They can bring in their own laptop if possible.
The maximum class size is 20 students, but the course moves at an appropriate speed and does require engagement and commitment from the students. Therefore there is little benefit having students present who are not interested.
Costs
CoderCraft is a Social Enterprise whose core aim is to provide educational opportunities for children. Costings can be tailored to the individual school.
In general costs are €1,800 for a term and €4,500 for a year.
GameMaker2 license also need to be purchased at a cost of €50 per student.
Contact Paul@CoderCraft.ie to enquire for your school