— Day 1 - Set Up and Brainstorm + Terrain: Our primary goal for this day is to assist students in setting up Roblox Studio and to familiarize kids with our course’s objectives. In our first class, students will start brainstorming ideas for the games they’d like to create. We’ll familiarize them with the Roblox Studio tools and they will start crafting the terrain for their maps.

⁠— Day 2 - Event Triggers / Script Basics: With scripts, objects can be brought to life and made interactive. Students in this session will utilize a basic programming language (Lua) and scripts to incorporate into their game and make event triggers.

⁠— Day 3 - UI / UX: After an introduction to UI / UX, students will learn how to add surfaceGUI to parts of their games to enable drop-down menus and start screens.

⁠— Day 4 - Scoreboards / Breakable Objects: By making certain objects breakable or obtainable, we’ll show students how to connect those objects to a functional scoreboard or leaderboard. This enables maps to have objects that can contribute to a score in which playtesters can collect.

⁠— Day 5 - Mobs and NPCs: Mobs and NPCs are non-playable characters or characters that are targetable. In this session, students will add NPCs or mobs to their games. They will also be able to script dialogue for the NPCs / Mobs they create. 

⁠— Day 6 - Special Effects: Using scripts, students may code special effects on their Roblox characters and other objects in the game. These special effects can be enabled at all times or only when players interact with the object.

⁠— Day 7 - Animation and Rigging: Students will learn how to use the animation plugin to create custom animations or use pre-existing animations provided by Roblox. They will use this newfound knowledge to animate their NPCs.

⁠— Day 8 - Showcase and Play: It’s showtime! Everyone will be able to share their games and playtest to reflect on the entire creation process. This is also the ideal time to give each other feedback.

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 alongside one another. Our programs are designed based on 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 directly 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, social studies, and the arts, 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.

The curriculum for this program was designed by a team of counselors pursuing degrees relevant to the material at hand. The learning experiences in this class are driven by these counselors’ academic expertise in the field, along with their desire to share their passion for the subject with a group of excited learners. All of Connected Camps’ curricula are vetted by the organization’s Product Manager, Matthew, who possesses a Masters in Secondary Education and a deep belief in the power of collaborative virtual learning.

Homework Offered
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.
Assessments Offered
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.
Grades Offered