For Grades 7 & Above
Steve Isaacs is joining us to share how Epic Games has created a series of Hour of Code/#CSEdWeek lesson plans to teach coding concepts through game design for teens. Imagine your students’ excitement when they hear that they will be using Fortnite Creative and Unreal Engine, the tool used to create Fortnite, Rocket League, Fall Guys, and many of their favorite games. Steve will share lesson plans, teacher guides, and a detailed student guide for all activities that allow students to create gaming levels while learning about conditional statements, functions, loops and booleans, and variables using industry-standard tools.Steve Isaacs is the Senior Manager of Programs and Partnerships at Epic Games. His mission in this role is to support organizations and educators in the adoption of Epic tools in the secondary classroom in order to support students in preparing for careers in emerging technology. Prior to his role at Epic, Steve was a public school teacher for 28 years, teaching game design and development as well as other courses related to creative uses of technology. Steve enjoys spending time with family and friends. His hobbies include video games, biking, snorkeling, hiking and live music.
For Elementary (through 6th grade)
Bill Marsland is joining us to share how to leverage the power of game development in teaching elementary aged students to code! We will discuss how creating games can appeal to a wide range of students and identify the foundational coding concepts students will learn as they develop their own games. Bill will also share how he has taught game development with students using two of his favorite tools: ScratchJr and MakeCode Arcade. Bill Marsland is the Director of Education and Learning at Code Ninjas, an afterschool kids coding franchise with hundreds of centers across the US, Canada, and the UK. He previously supported a district-wide computer science implementation across 72 elementary schools in the San Francisco Unified School District as a coach, co-teacher, professional development facilitator, and curriculum developer. Prior to that, Bill taught both music and technology at a K-8 school within the Chicago Public Schools. He holds a Masters degree in educational technology from Michigan State University, where he now works as an adjunct faculty member, designing courses for and teaching in the K-12 Computer Science Education online certificate program.
Please register for the meeting and join us on Zoom on October 15th from 5pm-6pm Pacific Time.