Fremont students try their hands at programming
The Stevenson High School-bound students from Fremont Middle School in Mundelein created games and manipulated circuit boards so that buzzers sounded, among other tasks, during the recent Code Fusion program.
Stevenson teachers developed two hours of coding experience for students heading to their high school next year.
Before students sign up for high school classes after winter break, teachers wanted them to gain firsthand experience of nontraditional classes that show students how coding can be integrated into engineering, web development, and game development fields, said computer science teacher David Gumminger.
During Code Fusion, students participated in hands-on sessions that involved the basics of computer programming, computer graphics, Web page design, robotic control systems, development with microprocessor systems, and game design.
"These are the kind of math classes Stevenson offers. Students worked on real-world problems using logical thinking and following the steps to solve an equation," said Doug Knox, eighth-grade math teacher.
Eighth-grader Avia Reza found the field trip very valuable.
"It showed me how coding affects robots and machinery," she said. "I also got to see whether I enjoyed coding a game over coding a robot."