A look back on the Code Week 2019 Student Meet: students lead video game design in Spain

Publication date: March 12, 2020

During Code Week 2019, students from Malta, Finland and Spain participated in an online meeting where they presented Code Week activities they had participated in and talked about their overall Code Week experience.

In Spain, Lucía, Sara, Laura and Rebeca designed a video game in Scratch and created a Joystick. Sofi and Rasmus from Finland participated in various activities from a CodyColor Battle Royale to an Hour of Code project. In Malta, Sarah, Andrea, Jacob and Chloe developed a project centred on the need to protect the environment, learning to work with Scratch and then building their own
prototypes.

In this blog post, we learn more about the students’ and teacher’s experience in Spain, with students Lucía, Sara and Laura and their teacher Conchi Fernández in a short interview.

Could you tell us more about the objective of your activities?

Conchi: Our project has two main objectives. The first objective is to develop computational thinking using Scratch and design a simple video game. For the video game, the students give ideas and execute orders. The second objective is to develop manual skills creating a prototype of a Joystick that we connected with the Makey Makey board. It’s always amazing to
create your own objects. This type of project encourages creativity as the children design their own products with really simple and cheap material.

Lucía and Laura, can you describe your experience?

Lucía: I really enjoyed working on this project because we had much fun doing it. We worked in a small group that made everything entertaining. Thanks to this, we learned many things about
technology and ways to use it, and have fun doing it. It is also a new way to communicate with our teacher. He or she can help you but you can also teach him
or her to do something.

Laura: I have learned to work in a team and help my classmates as needed. In addition, the activity was more fun with friends. Working as a team has led us to make decisions and develop ideas
together. For that, we needed to develop our communication abilities and help each other to improve ourselves.

Sara, what would you tell teachers that are interested in this kind of activities?

Sara: I would tell them that they should do this kind of activity because it is a different and fun way to learn and to develop technological skills. It is more entertaining because you learn in a new
way and students and teachers can work together on the same project. I recommend it because you learn a lot of new things. Last year, for example, I learned how to work with Makey Makey and now I can use this knowledge with my own class.

Conchi: I think it is very important for students to do things like this, not only in class but also in workshops and outside school, because it is really interesting and fun and you can make
friends. I think it is really cool!

Do you have a message for your colleagues?

Conchi: Don’t be afraid of coding. Don’t panic! Learn from your students. Learn together! Mistakes are part of the learning process. Even though you are wrong there is always something positive! The most important is to work on a small concrete project. The result is not important. It is about the process, not the finish of the process. Select one idea and go!

Are you interested in knowing more? Head over to the full Student Meet here!