This Week in Technology & Commerce

There are many exciting things happening in the Technology & Commerce Department at the moment, with a significant coding program being introduced across the Year 8 and 9 curricula.

The Year 9s are starting work with MicroBits.  These are tiny programmable computers that students can use to build games, sensors, interactives and more. The Year 9 girls are busy learning to write code for the Microbit and will be programming them to play such games as dice, Paper Rock Scissors, Bluetooth Tennis and then using their new-found skills in designing their own game. So far, the students have loved being able to write messages, program the interactive buttons and make the MicroBit ‘frown’ when it is tilted away from them!

On Wednesday, the Year 9 Cinema and Photography class were also fortunate to have Driss from NoahCode visit to do a coding workshop. This involved students finding out how computer code is used in real life, and the types of languages it can be written in. Driss gave us an overview of the sorts of opportunities available to women in the technology field, and the rapidly changing workforce students will be entering in the future.

Also on Wednesday, we had Sam from the Brainary present to the Year 8 Media class on artificial intelligence and humanoid robots. The team bought NAO, a robot that the students can remotely program and interact with. The Year 8 girls had a great time programing and controlling the humanoid robot and being able to put the coding skills they are currently learning in class into practice. Their excitement at being able to be in control of the robot and making things happen was amazing to see.

The Year 9s are starting work with MicroBits.  These are tiny programmable computers that students can use to build games, sensors, interactives and more. The Year 9 girls are busy learning to write code for the Microbit and will be programming them to play such games as dice, Paper Rock Scissors, Bluetooth Tennis and then using their new-found skills in designing their own game. So far, the students have loved being able to write messages, program the interactive buttons and make the MicroBit ‘frown’ when it is tilted away from them!

On Wednesday, the Year 9 Cinema and Photography class were also fortunate to have Driss from NoahCode visit to do a coding workshop. This involved students finding out how computer code is used in real life, and the types of languages it can be written in. Driss gave us an overview of the sorts of opportunities available to women in the technology field, and the rapidly changing workforce students will be entering in the future.

Also on Wednesday, we had Sam from the Brainary present to the Year 8 Media class on artificial intelligence and humanoid robots. The team bought NAO, a robot that the students can remotely program and interact with. The Year 8 girls had a great time programing and controlling the humanoid robot and being able to put the coding skills they are currently learning in class into practice. Their excitement at being able to be in control of the robot and making things happen was amazing to see.

Melissa Marshall, Head of Digital Learning/Head of Technology & Commerce