Coding Camp in Roblox: Create and Program Game Components (5-Session)

These are the students’ learning goals and activities over the course of five sessions:

⁠— Day 1 - Set Up and Introduction to Coding- Our primary goal for this day is to assist students in setting up Roblox Studio and to familiarize kids with our camp’s objectives. We’ll start off with a basic introduction to coding and what it can be used for. Students will use the onclick function to change scale, rotation and color of block in Roblox Studio by creating a “program”.

⁠— Day 2 - Loops - Students will learn the differences between while, for, and repeating loops in Roblox to make a dance lobby with cycling colors and alternating text labels.

⁠— Day 3 - Conditionals - We’ll explore how conditionals operate and each student will design their own escape room full of working parts with conditionals set that can teleport or give effects to characters in game.

⁠— Day 4 - Tweens - Tweens are tools that create animation effects on objects in Roblox Studio. By using tweens, students will enhance their project’s aesthetics and add additional fun features to polish their escape rooms.

⁠— Day 5 - Presentation - Through a combination of this week’s lessons, the class will create a giant obstacle course to playtest and each student will create a custom obstacle within it. Obstacles should include scripts for loops, conditionals and tweens. We will then present and playtest our creations!

Connected Camps is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2015 with the mission to build a global online community where kids build, code, play, and learn from one another. Our programs are designed based on the extensive research in the learning sciences. The founders and leaders of Connected Camps, Mimi Ito and Katie Salen, are professors at the University of California, Irvine who specialize in the design of online learning experiences that are fun, social, and tied to academic outcomes. Learn more about the research behind Connected Camps at the Connected Learning Alliance resource site: https://clalliance.org/ 

One thing that makes our programs unique is our near-peer mentorship model. Our programs are led by young adults and college students, often with the help of high school volunteers. We hire counselors and coaches from top universities in computer science, game development, economics, and sports performance, and design and train them on how to facilitate project-based learning with younger kids. Our young instructors have the same passion for technology, games, and digital making as our learners, and take on the role of instructors, as well as fellow enthusiasts and relatable role models.  

Learn more about our organization at:  https://connectedcamps.com/about 

This class does not require any out-of-class work. We do offer optional challenges that students can work on as an extension of what is taught in class. We provide guidance and instructions for students who are inspired to delve deeper into the topic. The purpose of these challenges is to give students the opportunity to supplement their learning with additional material that aligns with their passions and goals. Students may then integrate their learnings into their project and showcase their accomplishments to their classmates.

With this approach, students can explore the subject on their own. We give students the opportunity to share what they’ve explored independently with the class.

At Connected Camps, we assess each student’s progress by engaging them in reflection of their own work and the work of their classmates. By building in Roblox and applying concepts taught in class, our students are able to solidify their learnings through hands-on application. Our counselors’ focus is to provide qualitative feedback to further each students’ individual goals and interests, and we do not use letter or number grades.

In addition to our in-class reflections, our counselors also provide post-session recaps that offer a summary of what is accomplished each day. Through these summary reflections, students are able to review the material and share with their parents what they did in class. We find this approach allows kids of different interests and abilities to engage with our teachings in a way that is particularly relevant to them.

7 hours 30 minutes per week in class, and maybe some time outside of class.