Miami Springs High School students Rachel Quijano and Norlan Nunez spent five weeks this summer at SCIS thanks to the Florida International University 2018 Summer Youth Internship Program, a STEM collaborative initiative between FIU and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. A total of 150 students participated throughout different colleges.
Rachel and Norlan had no prior experience using 3D software but were capable of creating complex and coherent 3D games after only 15 hours of instruction that covers object-oriented programming concepts such as class/object and inheritance, and other traditional programming fundamentals such as loops, arrays, and conditionals. The students also learned to satisfy project requirements for a particular theme, which in this case was fall prevention. Finally, the students developed presentation skills to explain a particular algorithm in which characters are animated to interact with each other. For example, student Norlan Nunez coded an algorithm in which the soldier teases the skeletons by getting near them and then running away, thereby causing all skeletons to eventually group together to attack the soldier. And Rachel Quijano coded a representation of the Roman Aqueduct by using arrays and loops to stack together arches of different sizes.
Rachel Quijano Project:
When a girl is challenged by her best friend to cross a small pond by jumping on rocks, she doesn’t realize the big lesson she’s about to learn. When traveling around, one must always be careful to avoid fall hazards. Whether it’s as simple as walking up the stairs or crossing a bridge, or as difficult as jumping across moving rocks and riding a boat. You will experience many different scenarios which will help you develop your abilities in order to avoid fall hazards in the future. Along the way, you will meet interesting characters, explore a friendly environment, and learn valuable facts about falling. In the end, you will receive a special reward for completing the challenge: You get to visit the grand aqueduct castle on the island, so be prepared to pass Ashley’s challenge if you’re hoping to visit the grand kingdom!
Norlan Nunez Project:
An elite group of 4 set out from the planet Earth to find a suitable planet for homo sapiens and when things seem to be going well, one of the 4 elite space soldiers gets left behind on a quick examination of the planet Secedium. The planet seemed to have been habitable before with a race of aliens. These aliens died off because they were not able to survive and all that was left was a pit and a bridge. To examine the planet, the soldiers would have to cross the bridge; and to get back, they would also have to cross it. The bridge has been there for many years and is not very stable. The pit is filled with the dead warriors that once roamed the planet’s civilization. A large sandstorm hit the planet’s surface that was 3x larger than the biggest storm that had hit Earth. The shuttle was able to survive the harsh conditions of the storm, but sadly a soldier was left on the other side of the bridge. Now in order for that one soldier to get back, he needs to cross the bridge which is highly unstable and about to collapse. If the soldier were to fall down there, he would then have to face the skeletons’ wrath or manage to get back across the bridge with this artificial intelligent teleporter that would bring him back to his starting position. Once the soldier manages to get across and to the ship, he will then be greeted by his commander and they will be able to fly away to the next planet in search for humanity’s next “home”.
In construction sites, workers have to usually climb or get across to a certain area. One cannot be afraid of falling or take the chance of falling because just like in this simulation, the result when one falls isn’t pretty. Making risky choices can lead to some deadly results.
