St. George's School, Aachen

Middle/Upper School
Scratching the Surface of Education…
Over the past 6 weeks the Year 9 IT students have been using the
“Scratch” programming tool to develop and write their very own
computer games. Scratch is a programing language that allows users
to take existing programming code and fit it together like jigsaw
pieces. On-line tutorial programs and the
communities of Scratch users give students
access to a vast range of tutorial
material. Students are therefore able to
pick and choose the topics that they
learn based on the information they require to complete their tasks.
Sasha and Tobin programming in the IT
Students were also given the freedom to choose their own project and set
their own goals. In educational speak this is know as “authentic assessment”,
a process where students learn information they require to ac-
The Scratch work screen.
complish real world goals. Because students have chosen their own project
enthusiasm is much higher and student performance is greatly enhanced. Authentic assessment
tasks generally show a much greater level of learning that can be remembered far longer than for
more traditional forms of assessment.
The video games the students produced were outstanding and their teacher enjoyed the enthusiasm
for learning displayed by students.
D.Latimer
Video Killed the Radio Star!
This term, Year 7 and 8 ICT students created their own
music videos using Windows MovieMaker. The classic
“Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Bangles was the
aptly chosen song! Students edited and compiled videos
in MovieMaker, added music, wrote subtitles, and experimented
with video effects and transitions. We were
all able to enjoy the fruits of our hard work in a movietheatre
style (popcorn-accompanied!) viewing during
our final lesson.
A.Walker