A model crosswalk and a candy dispenser gave Wellwood Middle School students a chance to explore how computer code can bring their designs to life.
The school’s four-week Coding and Design workshop brought together 24 students in grades 5-8 under the guidance of technology education teacher Brooke Brenon. More than 70 students signed up, with participants selected through a lottery.
“We will be hosting a second round of workshop sessions in the spring because interest was so high,” Brenon said.
The workshop was part of Hofstra University’s Computer Science Through Engineering Design in New York research project, supported by a National Science Foundation grant. The project explores how designing and building devices can help students develop a deeper understanding of computer science.
Brenon’s involvement began over the summer, when she evaluated curriculum developed by the Hofstra team and provided feedback during the project’s first phase. Based on that work, she was selected to participate in the second phase, which brings the lessons to students.
As a participating school, Wellwood received 15 Hummingbird robotics premium programming kits. The kits serve as the foundation for the Hofstra team’s projects and allow students to connect computer programming with hands-on engineering design.
Students tried two projects: a model crosswalk and a candy dispenser. The crosswalk activity involved programming the timing of a signal’s change from “Don’t Walk” to “Walk” after a button is pressed. The candy dispenser challenged students to build a device that releases candy using a motor and a button or distance sensor.
The four-week workshop series was held on Mondays between Oct. 19 and Nov. 9. Through their participation, students helped researchers examine how engineering design supports computer science learning.