STEM & DESIGN SUNDAY | Grades 2+ | FREE

Here is the lineup of topics for our FREE STEM & Design workshops on May 7. Space is limited for each topic and Registration is required! Please note time and location for each topic.

For Unity or Scratch workshops, please bring the following information – either the login information for an existing account OR an email address that can be used to create an account.

Unity Game Engine: Beginner & Intermediate , grades 7-12, limit 4. 2:00-3:30 pm, The Maxx – 94 Railroad Street.

Scratch Coding: Beginner & Intermediate , grades 2-8, limit 6. 2:00-3:30 pm, The Maxx – 94 Railroad Street.

Advanced Game Design with Scratch , grades 6-12, limit 6. 3:30-4:30 pm, The Maxx – 94 Railroad Street. Prior experience with Scratch required.

If you register for this event but find you are unable to attend, PLEASE contact us asap so that we can offer your spot to someone else. Thank you!

 

REGISTER NOW

Date

May 07 2023
Expired!

Time

2:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Location

The Maxx
94 Railroad St, New Milford, CT 06776

We are here to help your kids discover their talents and start applying STEM principles and problem solving in everyday life. This is your chance to help us raise another generation of independent thinkers. DONATE TODAY to help us maintain our classes, provide necessary training to our young mentors, and ensure access to all. Together we help keep this community educated and help our children build a better future for everyone.

 

Game Development with Unity

 

Grades 7-12 or by permission. Summer camps, 1 to 2 hour, multi-day classes, and 1-day workshops. Inquire about online options.

This topic provides a good introduction to Unity and its use for game development and the application of the programming language C# to a specific project. New students will learn fundamentals of the software platform tools and libraries and each build their own level of one group game. Experienced students will work on their own complete game. Students will download the Unity development software to take part in this class.

 

This class will not teach coding fundamentals (see “Requirements” below).

 

The benefit of Unity: Unity is a development platform for creating graphics and animation in 2D, 3D, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). It has very wide use in industry for creating video games, films and animation for many applications. Because working in Unity involves the use of code libraries written in the language C#, it also provides a great learning path to higher levels of coding in general. Unity has a very large user base and is well supported with tutorials and forums that provide great sources of information and help.

 

Requirements:

 

- A personal interest in game design and learning about an industrial-strength game development platform.

- The class is focused on learning to use the software platform Unity and applying C# to the subject of game development. The class does not have time to teach coding fundamentals. Therefore a high comfort level with at least one programming language is necessary to be allowed to join the class. C# is ideal, Java and any other C-based language are the next most relevant languages.  Strong ability in Python or Java Script is also acceptable.

 

Optional but highly recommended:

 

- Installation of the free Unity development software on a laptop or desktop computer from your home. Our staff can help with installation during the classes.

- Creation of a personal Unity account to allow projects and learning to continue at home. The accounts are free and we will provide guidance on the account setup.

- Creation of a GitHub account to allow collaboration with other students and our instructors, and access to code from many other designers. The accounts are free and we will provide guidance on the account setup.

 

Learn more about Unity

Programming in Scratch: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced

 

Grades 3-9. 1-day workshops, or 1 to 2 hour sessions in multi-day classes and week long summer camps. In-person or Online.

Our "Programming in Scratch" topic serves students who want to begin learning to code and also those wanting to learn fundamentals of game development and animation for games.

 

Beginners (Level 1): No keyboard skills necessary! Scratch is a “drag and drop” programming language developed at MIT. It is free and easy to use with no risk to a home computer as it is done completely online. Scratch is excellent for learning all of the fundamental concepts of programming in any language and suitable for very young as well as older students. Scratch can be used to create very complex programs for games and simulations in many subjects like physics, math, computers, and engineering. Students will learn how to begin and save projects, and create simple programs and games like Maze and Pong. Students will learn how to find interesting projects online, see the actual code, and use and change the code to create their own games or animations.

 

Intermediate and advanced (Level 2): Either as separate workshops or following a beginner-level workshop in Scratch, instructors will share their latest projects and examples from others that use high-level tools and skills. Students may also share their projects and get help as needed as they learn more skills and fundamentals of coding while creating more difficult games and animations. Advanced techniques include gravity, momentum and switches, and custom special effect engines. Advanced coding skills and concepts to be learned include lists, variables, operators, procedures, conditionals, and loops, and learning to debug problems in code.

 

Students must create a Scratch account at home before the class or provide an email address that can be used to create an account during the first class.

 

Learn more about Scratch

Introduction to Robotics using LEGO NXT or LEGO EV3

 

Grades 3-6 & 7-12. 1-day workshops, or multi-day classes and week long summer camp, 2 hours/class. In-person only.

Build a robot and learn fundamentals of programming and robotics engineering with LEGO’s programmable NXT or EV3 robotics system of controller, motors, sensors and Mindstorms software. The use of NXT or EV3 system will depend on the student’s age and experience. Students will work in pairs but exceptions may be allowed to work alone. Once students accomplish required tasks and simpler challenges, they can choose from higher level challenges or build a more complex robot of their own design or one provided by the instructors. Depending on availability, students may also be able to use robots to solve FIRST LEGO League competition missions. The final class will include optional robot battles within a 4 foot arena ring where students test mechanical design and programming strategies against each other.

 

Learn about LEGO Mindstorms

Learn more about EV3 and NXT

Introduction to Coding

 

Grades K-8. 1-day workshops, or 1 to 2 hour sessions in multi-day classes and week long summer camp. In-person or Online.

No keyboard skills necessary! We created this topic to help the youngest students learn very basic concepts of coding. Our goal is to provide the basic skills and understanding needed to allow them to begin our coding topics in Scratch, Java and Python. We use non-computer activities to illustrate some concepts. We use the online resources Code.org and Scratch to gain coding skills while playing and creating games. Students will also create accounts that will save their progress and projects, and work on them from anywhere from a computer or a phone or tablet.

 

Learn more about Code.org

Learn more about Scratch

Introduction to App Coding

 

Grades 3-12 in grade-appropriate concepts and activities. 1-day workshops, or 1 to 2 hour sessions in multi-day classes and week long summer camp. In-person or Online.

App Lab is an excellent, free programming environment (from Code.org) for building and sharing apps that will work on phones or tablets. Apps can be as simple or as complex as the student wishes to create and include animations, graphic art, user interaction and more. The workshop and classes are designed to quickly introduce App Lab as a fun and powerful tool. Students learn fundamental coding concepts and how to create and control buttons, text, images, sounds, and screens. Coding is done using simple-to-use programming blocks chosen from menus of blocks. The blocks can be easily converted to JavaScript code, allowing students to grow into their first text-based coding language.

 

After learning some basics, students can begin a simple app project like "Choose Your Own Adventure", "Greeting Card", or "Personality Quiz" app. They can also view and learn from more projects featured on the code.org/applab page. All multi-session classes will include a mini “hackathon” where students collaborate to create an app for a specific goal, and share their project with the other teams.

 

Students can continue to use App Lab at home on any laptop and many devices, at no cost.

 

Prior coding experience needed: none

 

Learn more about App Lab.

Energy and Electricity

 

Grades 3-12 in grade-appropriate concepts and activities. 1-day workshops, or 1 to 2 hour sessions in multi-day classes and week long summer camp. In-person only.

This topic uses fun and engaging activities to introduce interesting concepts of energy, the different forms of energy and changing one form of energy to another. The activities open young minds to what energy and power really are, and how renewable forms of energy can be used to create the power their world needs. Examples of energy sources or forms are mechanical, thermal, wind, solar, and electrical.

 

Students will also learn basic concepts of electricity and very simple circuits, and learn what soldering of circuits is all about.

Introduction to 2-Dimensional Graphic Design and Animation with Fire Alpaca

 

Grades 3-12. 1-day workshops, or 1 to 2 hour sessions in multi-day classes and week long summer camps. In-person or Online.

Explore true artistic graphic design, in 2-dimensions, with the free, open-source software FireAlpaca, and learn to create animations of your work. Students will create their own account and can continue using the software year-round. Student projects from summer camps will be stored as a video on our YouTube channel. FireAlpaca is an open-source graphic art alternative to Photoshop and has the added benefit of animation. This  is a great way to start learning about graphic art software and animation concepts and skills in general like layering, textures, color palettes and much more. This topic provides a great basis for learning about more capable animation software in our other camp topics like Krita and Pro-Create.

 

Requirements:

 

- The only requirement is an interest in graphic art and creating your own, original art and animations.
- Keyboard (typing) ability is needed only for saving and opening design files.
- Installation of Fire Alpaca on the student’s home computer is required. The software is safe to download and use. Instructions will be provided for downloading and installing the software if needed.

 

Learn more about FireAlpaca

Tinkercad - Introduction to 3D modeling and 3D printing

 

Grades 3-12 or by permission. 1-day workshops, or 1 to 2 hour sessions in multi-day classes and week long summer camps. In-person or Online.

Tinkercad is a great way for students interested in 3D modeling and design to get a feel for what working in a 3D environment is like! Tinkercad is a free, introductory educational software created by engineering software company Autodesk. Tinkercad runs in your browser so it requires no software download and allows you to create an account and save your projects. Students will learn how to create, dimension, combine, and customize pre-generated and custom drawn geometric shapes to create basic models, parts, and inventions. Tinkercad has many other fun uses like electronics and “brick building.” Tinkercad is also the perfect start for moving up to Autodesk Fusion 360, which is our choice for teaching higher levels of 3D modeling, product design, mechanical design and making prototypes. Each student can choose one suitable model to be printed by Robotics And Beyond and picked up in New Milford or mailed to the home.

 

Requirements:

 

- Computer access (Windows, Mac, or Chromebook all work!)
- Access to Google Chrome (other browsers may work but Chrome is what we base our classes on, so certain aspects may differ on Safari, Firefox, Edge, etc.)
- An Autodesk Tinkercad account (a tutorial for making the account will be sent to parents before classes begin)

 

Learn more about Tinkercad

Tinkercad Wikipedia