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Thirty elementary and intermediate school students demonstrated some of the fun technology skills they’re learning at the February monthly meeting of the West Jefferson Hills School District Board. 

A quartet of fifth grade students from Jefferson Hills Intermediate School discussed the school’s TJ3D Club, which uses multiple 3D printers to create a variety of items which are sold. The club leaders distributed several items they have produced to the School Board members. 

Jason Legg, who teaches K-2 business, computer and information technology in the district spoke about some of the initiatives students at Gill Hall Elementary and McClellan Elementary Schools have been learning about and creating in school, which they demonstrated at the Board meeting.

First grade students from McClellan Elementary collaborated with their team to construct Sphero Indi car courses for their cars to traverse. Students were tasked with planning courses using color tiles, which the car then senses to perform different functions based on each color. Through this activity students were provided with an early screen-free coding experience. They were able to create step by step “codes” for their cars, practice pattern recognition, as well as decomposition and debugging of their course to solve any problem areas.

Second grade students from Gill Hall Elementary created platform games using the Code Spark Academy app, then showed Board members how the game was created and played it with them on their laptops. Prior to creating their games they completed block based coding levels to be able to earn the variety of components to build their games. Through these levels they learned about sequences, loops, automation and conditional statements. 

The students then designed their games by using game components such as blocks, enemy characters, obstacles, props, backgrounds, gems and other game elements.  Students also added visual block programming to their games creating actions for their blocks, characters, and other game components.  Students focused on keeping their games balanced with the ability to win the game, while still maintaining a level of difficulty and making frequent revisions to improve their games along the way. 

Students who attended the February WJHSD Board meeting:

Jefferson Hills Intermediate School - Fifth grade students:

Gwendolynn Cantley, Declan Concannon, Leighton DePierre, Sadie Motycki

Gill Hall Elementary School - Second grade students: 

Jack Altavilla, Nora Bonno, Hunter Gombas, April Hunter, Max Katic, Karson Kolling, London Legge, Stephanie Mikula, Oliver Morgan, Bidushi Sapkota, Ashley Sarver, Cam Stephens-Hawling, Luke Yocco

McClellan Elementary School - First grade students: 

Raveena Acharya, Gabrielle Flaus, Callix Fontanilla, Asher Holuta, Charlotte Houser, Avery Marnell, Ryland Metzgar, Zoey Morgans, Emmitt Murray, Zian Poblete, Madeline Skalos, Ace Turkas, Grayson Wildman

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