Coding and Game Development - Part 2

This 8 week course is designed for students ages 7 to 12 who have completed the Intro to Coding and Game Development class. Each week will consist of a one-hour live, online lesson and a few independent practice exercises to reinforce new concepts.

In this class, students will build on the skills they learned in the last class, and work towards solving more open-ended problems, applying more advanced tools, and adding more complex functionality to their game. By the end of these 8 weeks, students should be comfortable applying the tools they’ve learned to simple, open-ended coding problems. Students will also add to an ongoing game or project, and be able to read most simple programs.

Do accomplish these goals, we'll use the basic coding vocabulary (loops, functions, variables, etc.) now at students’ disposal to practice problem-solving skills, independent investigation, and good thinking habits.

The class will roughly follow this schedule, but we may deviate from it slightly, depending on students’ interests and the challenges that we encounter:

Week 1: Functions with Input
- Look at examples of a function that take input: array.push
- What does it mean for a function to take input?
- Write a function that increases a score variable by a given number
- Discuss syntax and tradeoffs

Week 2: Functions with Output
- Look at examples of other functions that give output: push and pop
- What does it mean for a function to have output?
- Write a function that takes 2 numbers, and returns their sum

Week 3: Iterative Logic
- Practice using an iterator variable (i, number, etc.) in a while loop
- Use a while loop to print every item in an array of strings

Week 4: For Loops
- Introduce syntax and mechanics of For Loops
- Compare and Contrast For Loops and While Loops

Week 5: Intermediate Boolean Logic
- Introduce “And” and “Or” operators
- Use "And" and "Or" operators to solve a logic problem
- Discuss Tradeoffs between different ways to present boolean logic

Week 6: Debugging
- Practice Debugging Boolean Logic, Loops, and more complex functions
- Problem Solving Practice

Week 7: More Problem Solving Practice
- Work through a more open-ended problem. For example: how to add all numbers in an array

Week 8: More Problem Solving Practice
- Continue working through problem from last time
- Discuss and practice problem solving skills
- Next Steps