The buzz in Google’s Bakery Square auditorium in Pittsburgh was palpable, as 40 high school students from around the region debated a myriad of topics: Java or Python? What’s lacking in the Android MarketTM? How are mobile apps different from non-mobile? A shared interest in computer science had drawn the students to Winchester Thurston's Android App Lab 2012, which kicked off with a tour of Google and a meeting with Google engineers. The App Lab is a unique and collaborative workshop in which students design real-world applications for Android devices.
WT Computer Science teacher David Nassar comments, “The App Lab is a perfect example of a real-world project that naturally motivates students to develop their mathematical, artistic, scientific, and logical thinking skills. They have to not only design an app that works, but also tap into art skills to build an aesthetically pleasing app. They have to be able to communicate with each other, with their client, and use those skills to find out what void is in the app market to build an app that people will use.”
What makes the App Lab especially powerful is that it brings high school students from around the region together, so they can teach one another, collaborate on ideas, and solve problems together. Nassar initiated the App Lab last year as an elective to engage and challenge his advanced computer science students. Immediately, he and City as Our Campus Director Teresa DeFlitch saw an opportunity to take the elective beyond WT’s walls and deepen the students’ learning by having them teach others.
In the spring of 2011, WT students in the App Lab hosted 15 South Fayette School District students in a five-week long after school program. WT students were responsible for teaching and mentoring the South Fayette students throughout the process, which challenged not only their programming knowledge but also their leadership skills. Together, the students created an app for travelers that converts Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin temperatures. Designing the app was more complicated than it might seem, explains Nassar. “Students needed to learn how to perform mathematical operations in the language, how to request information from the user (i.e. what is the initial temperature), how to output a result based upon a calculation to the user (i.e. your new temperature is ...), and in the case of Android programming, how to make a visually pleasing interface that is intuitive for the user to use.”
The partnership with South Fayette School District was a resounding success, so much so that last fall, Nassar and Aileen Owens, Director of Technology and Innovation at South Fayette School District, were selected to present at the Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference (TRETC), the premier K-16 educational technology conference in Western Pennsylvania, where they shared their innovative work on the Android App Lab program.
From there, interest in the program spread to other schools. This year, WT students in the App Lab will mentor students from the Obama School while South Fayette students will teach students from Quaker Valley. The plan is for each participating school to mentor another school the following year, passing along the knowledge they acquire and growing the App Lab exponentially throughout the region. WT and Obama are already underway, attacking a much more complex programming mission this year: designing a video game that requires users to use their fingers on the touch-sensitive Android tablet screen to guide a moving attacker to a moving target. Students will then have creative freedom to create whatever “scene” they so desire, for example a cat chasing a mouse or a fish chasing food.
At the kick-off meeting at Google in January, students had the opportunity for a Q&A session with three Google engineers who provided insight on the need to be well-versed, not only in programming but in math, science, and communication skills, to excel in today’s ever-changing world.
Upper School Director Mick Gee notes, “not only is it impressive to have students working on real-world tasks such as Android application programming, but it is even more impressive that three out of the four students in the lab are sophomores who are taking AP Computer Science simultaneously. WT’s curriculum is structured to provide students with constant challenge and the Android App Lab is proof of that belief.”
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