Technology

Faculty Member

Clare Nesfield

From learning Adobe Photoshop skills to designing with LEGO robotics, students learn real-world skills.

ONE-TO-ONE COMPUTING
All Middle School Students are issued a school-owned Chromebook, charging cable, and protective carrying case. Students in grades 6 and 7 will be issued Acer Convertible Chromebooks, and students in grade 8 will be issued Samsung Chromebooks. Students are expected to bring their Chromebook with them to school every day, make sure it is fully charged each night, and keep it in the provided case. An optional insurance program is available to families to cover breakage and loss.

COMPUTER 6
This course is designed to acquaint 6th graders with the use of the computer as a tool for learning and creating. By providing them with weekly hands-on computer lessons, related to their academic classes, students will become familiar with technology related vocabulary. They will gain a working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Photoshop. Keyboarding skills will be developed and sustained by practicing at home. The ultimate goal is for students to reach the typing proficiency level of thirty words per minute for a sustaining period of five minutes with eighty-five percent accuracy by the end of the eighth grade year.

COMPUTER I AND COMPUTER II
This course is offered for two quarters of the year. It is designed to develop a deeper level of use of the computer as a viable tool in their career as middle school students. Gain an in-depth working knowledge of Scratch to create interactive game, MakeyMakey to learn about physical computing, and and TinkerCad to design and create 3D printed objects.

LEGO ROBOTICS
This course is offered for one quarter in the seventh grade. It is designed to develop an understanding of programming and building a lego robot. Working in pairs, students are given information for their robots to perform given tasks. They work together to program, run, and troubleshoot their robotic tasks. Each challenge becomes increasingly more difficult.

COMPUTER MASTERY
This course is offered for one quarter in the eighth grade. Students will work at their own pace to complete on-line lessons using CodeHS's Karel the Dog introduction to JavaScript programming. Students will learn computer science concepts and build upon concepts learned using Scratch and Lego Robotics programming.