Elementary School Exhibition

It just makes sense for a Programming Exhibition to be online, so it fit in well with the current times. E-Day dawned and the Eagles were pumped and a little anxious, as is always the case before an Exhibition. Many were awake early on the day … adrenaline preventing them from sleeping in. Some were seen sending messages via the ES chat room hours before school started.

The hour finally arrived and the Eagles were ready in front of their Chromes.

The site went live at 9.02am. Almost immediately, the Eagles were receiving feedback via their parents’ Whatsapp and the Guides like, “Your game seems to be broken, I can’t play the game that you made,” and “I can’t access your feedback form.”

The Eagles immediately sprung into action, fixing all the problems that arose within the first hour. They managed to overcome all of the problems that the guests were facing, except for one. The feedback form. The Eagle in charge thought the problem was fixed, but it wasn’t. After many attempts, she finally managed to fix it and guests were able to access it and provide feedback to the Eagles.

The morning after the Exhibition, the Studio went through the feedback received during the Exhibition. Overall, the feedback was positive and the Eagles were encouraged. They took the lessons learned to heart and registered what they could have done to improve the next time.

“I learned that I need to work on meeting deadlines.”

“I need to be less distracted and focus more on my work.”

“There are limitations to the platform that I used for my coding project.”

“I need to learn how to do that.” (Feedback mentioned to insert an end to the timer on the game.)

“I didn’t have enough time to work on my coding project because the last week before Exhibition I decided to change it. If I had more time I could have made my game better.”

All in, it was another successful Exhibition. Successful as in the presentations were impressive, but also in the fact that the Eagles learned and grew through adversity.

Writer’s Workshop Presentation

C wrote an instructional piece on how to play Minecraft for complete Noobs.

K wrote instructions on how to carry out a more advanced piece of crafting.

The Writer’s Workshop brief was for a piece of instructional writing, but AP and Z rightly observed that there are more types of instructional writing than program instructions.

L wrote instructions on how to start off with Prodigy – a fun Maths learning platform.

Coding Presentation

AP’s Mosquito Killing game was simple but addictive!

AR created a fantasy story complete with homemade sound effects!

E created a Minecraft video that inspired Noobs to play Minecraft too!

C created an addictive cat & mouse game!

Z created a psychedelic animal mandalaright before our eyes!

JAR melded the old-school with the here and now to create… Pong the creeper!

JAR’s The search of the missing ball video feels like a certain movie …

JAS made dancing cat videos to get us bopping!

Middle School Exhibition

“Will humans rule computers or will they rule us?” That was the overriding question that the MS Eagles pondered this Sprint. They explored the history of computers and technology in general, and discussed AI’s place in the modern world. They also mentored and facilitated the ES Eagles’ exploration of coding and technology through interactive games and stimulating questions.

On the practical side, the MS Eagles used the Thunkable coding software to create apps that are applicable in our everyday lives.

The MS Eagles conceived and designed very different apps with different purposes.

All of the apps had one thing in common … they were practical and easy to use.

The MS Eagles used the Thunkable, the free coding platform. To access the apps, you need to sign up for the platform – an added security measure to weed out random players.

HAD, who presented an ActonKL Quiz, reflected:

“I was scared because I didn’t think I could finish my app by the Exhibition deadline. It was also harder to prepare the Coding Site because the Eagles were doing it over call meaning that it took a lot more time as we would lose focus pretty easily. After how the Exhibition went, I definitely thought that it would have been better if the Exhibition wasn’t virtual, but I was somewhat satisfied as I knew I tried my hardest.”

Your memory of ActonKL had to be good to do HAD’s ActonKL quiz.

AND you had to be on your toes for those cheeky pop-up questions!

A created a handy checklist to help you remember your tasks.

When you want to free your mind for other things, write the mundane in a checklist!

You can write ANYTHING you need to remember.

HAI created Halcyon, a breather tool to aid anxious people relax through controlled breathing. He reflected: The Exhibition as a whole was a bit of a rollercoaster. At first, I was trying to decide what I should code, but after a few days I decided on making a ‘breather tool’ for people who deal with panic and anxiety. My only dilemma was that there was a lack of examples on how to code such an app on the internet. But I made it work after coming across a few helpful videos.

My main lesson learnt was to double-check my work. There were a few times I could’ve saved myself from stress and checked for bugs in my code. Other than that, I think the Exhibition went in my favour and I was happy with what I produced.

A pre-session check-in is always a good idea to measure the effectiveness of the program.

Paying attention to your breathing is not easy! This app helps you regulate your breathing to calm down.

A post-session reflection rounds off the session nicely.

Dhanya’s app was born from her quest to study more effectively. She commented:

“I like how we got more feedback this time from parents because it helps us improve and grow. I wish there was a way to interact with parents virtually so we could answer questions and interact more in general. We had some obstacles with viewing our apps, but we learned to solve it by informing parents about it in advance.”