On April 25, 2017, Information Technology Academy (ITA) took ITA Madison Student Ambassadors to Nuestro Mundo Elementary School for a Technology Road Show. The annual event aims to engage younger students through technology-based projects, and it is an opportunity to expose the elementary school community of students, teachers, and administrators to ITA’s program and mission.
Elementary school students played a critical part in determining which projects would be created for the Road Show. Earlier this year, third graders from teacher Krista Ewing’s class and high school-aged ITA Ambassadors exchanged letters to generate video game ideas. Under the guidance of ITA’s Technology Services Manager, A.J. Daughtry Krill, and ITA Technology Instructors, the ITA Ambassadors worked hard over several months to create 18 educational computer games that brought to life the elementary school students’ ideas.
The Road Show event was an opportunity for ITA Ambassadors to reveal their projects to the elementary school students. All of Nuestro Mundo’s 3rd through 5th grade classes were able to attend the Road Show, and students had the opportunity to interact with each project. The computer games included a Candyland remix, a “Draw-Your-Own-Maze” game, robots, Emoji Run, Dig Up Fossils, and more. Throughout the day, the Nuestro Mundo students could be seen running from game to game with smiles on their faces.
Not only was the program a fun learning experience for Nuestro Mundo’s students, but ITA Ambassadors also learned from the experience. Some ITA Ambassadors—the designers of the games—could be seen making real-time tweaks to their programs based on player feedback. All ITA Ambassadors learned how to explain both the rules of their game and how they created the game, helping plant the seeds for future technologists. The collaboration and energy between the high school and elementary school students over technology was inspiring!
The third-grade class also created a ballot box in which each student voted for the project he or she thought was “most fun.” The third graders who envisioned the computer games will reveal a winner on May 13. In our view, all the students were winners. We congratulate them on their hard work and successful collaborations!
You can check out and play the ITA Ambassadors’ games here (http://tinyurl.com/NuestroMundoITA2017).