Course Activities

Students will have 2 or 3 assignments that they will be completing through each unit.  The assignments are designed with an opened ended approach in order to give the students an opportunity to use their creativity, design skills and unique approach when completing each task.  Through each unit, students will be able to learn new skills about each respective topic and build on their pre-existing skills.  Each assignment is designed to be completed over a 1 to 2 week time period.  During that time, students will be able to follow lessons, discuss problems in the class forum, and utilize their peers and teacher for support.

Summary of units:

 Unit 1 – Making Games (Weeks 1 – 3).  We will utilize the online platform of Scratch to learn basic programming skills.  This unit will have two assignments (you can find more details about these on the Assignments page).  The first assignment will involve building a small multiplayer game on Scratch.  Through this, you will learn the basics of block-style programming and understand the basics of object-oriented programming.  The second assignment will involve creating a short animated film.  Through this, you will learn how to create basic animations, and how to effectively control the flow of a program.

 Unit 2 – Making Photos (Weeks 4 – 7). We will utilize the industry standard photo manipulation program Adobe Photoshop to learn basic photo editing and manipulation skills.  This unit will have three assignments (you can find more details about these on the Assignments page).  The first assignment will involve creating a Movie Poster for your own movie.  Through this, you will learn the basic tools in Photoshop, how to layer effectively, and how make adjustments or alterations to an image.  The second assignment will involve creating a Superhero mashup.  This assignment will teach you how to effectively blend multiple images together and how to utilize features, such as filters, to edit your images.  The third assignment will involve building your own image from scratch.  This assignment will allow you to showcase the various skills that you have developed throughout the unit by combining multiple different images together to make one single image.

 Unit 3 – Making Models (Weeks 8 – 11). – We will utilize the open-sourced 3D modeling and animation program Blender for this unit.  This unit will have two assignments (you can find more details about these on the Assignments page).  The first assignment will involve creating a small 3D model.  This assignment will teach you the basic skills of 3D modeling, how to effectively use materials and textures, and proper lighting. The second assignment will involve using your 3D model from Assignment 1 in a short animation.  Through this, you will learn the basics of using a camera in a 3D environment, adding frames to your animation, and making your model come to life.

 Unit 4 – Making Websites (Weeks 12 – 14). – You will have the option to use different text-editing tools (we will utilize Notepad++ in our course examples) to create a basic personal website.  This unit will have two assignments (you can find out more details about these on the Assignments page).  The first assignment will involve evaluating and critiquing various online websites on their user-friendliness and aesthetic appeal.  Through this, you will learn about different design qualities and layout options for your own website.  The second assignment will involve creating your own basic personal website.  While working on this assignment, you will learn basic skills with HTML and CSS and how those two languages work together to create a website.

 Unit 5 – Tools for Business (Weeks 15 – 17). – We will utilize the online platform of Office365 and the Microsoft Office Desktop suite to be able to create various documents and files that would be used in a business environment.  This unit will have assignments related to use of Office365 and Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  You will be able to evaluate the differences of working on a cloud-based platform such as Office365, compared to the desktop equivalent on Microsoft Office.  This unit will have three different assignments to complete and each assignment will focus on using a variety of different tools in order to create professional looking files.

Course Calendar

Use the calendar below to keep track of assignment deadlines and follow with what unit we are studying.  The course starts on January 30, 2017 and is designed to be completed in the second semester of the high school calendar year.