Oceanside sixth-graders create video games from ‘Scratch’

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As part of their sixth-grade curriculum, students in Oceanside elementary schools banded together to brainstorm, code and produce video games as part of the district’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics program.

For three years now, computer game design has been included in Oceanside’s STEM curriculum, and it has been helping the children develop what Oceanside School District STEM facilitator Donna Migdol calls “21s century skills.” The 22 hours of class time each semester also lead to an entire portfolio of short, simple games for elementary schoolchildren and their peers to enjoy.

Using Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s visual programming language Scratch, the children — having no prior knowledge — worked via a simple block-like interface to develop and code their visions that they came up with together in groups during class. Through the process, they learn about conditionals, logic and algebraic reasoning. At the end, School Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9E shared their games — which ranged from mazes and quizzes to games inspired by classics like Pac-Man, Galaga and Pong — and tallied how popular each and every groups’ game was.

Migdol said the lessons “create problem solvers” and “promote critical thinking” as well as improve the kids’ mathematical abilities. Additionally, there is a great deal of team building going on in the classrooms, she said. Migdol added that students also tend to help other students ­— before during and after bringing their games came to life — and implemented virtual business practices, mingling with other students outside of their groups who serve as accounting, advertising and technical support.

“They are going to be doing this in the real world,” she said, highlighting their progress in creativity, collaboration and communication. “That’s what we’re looking for . . . this really opens the door for that.”

Migdol explained that coding in particular is not easy and often takes trial and error, just like learning geometry, for example. She said what the children are involved in here is “not just video games,” but rather general education. And next year, Migdol noted, the seventh-graders in Oceanside Middle School will also join in.

“At first, I thought I would be bad at coding,” Oceanside School No. 3 student Cassie Lucero, who took the classes, said. “But as I got involved . . . I realized that I could actually create my own code and make working games.”

She added, “I definitely gained more confidence in myself because I saw that I started not knowing if I could code with such complexity to teaching others to code their own games!” After the semester ended, Lucero said she taught her sister how to code.

Her fellow classmate Alex Boller said he “learned how to work as a team and that everyone on the team has to make contributions and do their jobs in order to be successful.” He explained that beyond coding, he and his group had to try and get their peers to download and play their games, in order to earn “money” — the point system used to track how well-received their game was.

Boller added, “This experience taught me that you are not going to be successful on the first run, you are going to have to go through trial and error, which teaches you to be patient with yourself and never give up.”

Anyone can check out all the games at oceansideschools.org/common/Project_extra/Game_Design_gr6.html and play them “all summer long,” according to Migdol.