The Role Playing Clubs are underway

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The Role Playing Clubs are underway! From classic dungeon crawls to political intrigue, the literal game is afoot. One of our most popular clubs is under way and could have a record breaking four groups. Participants will learn skills such as numeracy, addition and subtraction, cooperation, and teamwork as well as gain a basic and intuitive understanding of simple probability and statistics. They will also exercise creativity in both storytelling and problem solving areas. This year two different role-playing systems will be used, the completely free and open source Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game, and the ever popular Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. We look forward to seeing what these groups get up to.

Map Courtesy of Dyson Logos: https://dysonlogos.blog/

Pronoun Buttons

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Pronoun buttons. What are they? They are small pins with a person’s pronouns on them. Why is this important? We can make harmful assumptions about individuals and by normalizing the concept of asking for, rather than assuming, a person’s pronouns we can make the world a more inclusive place. Most people choose to use a pronoun for themselves, though some people would actually prefer not to be referred to with a pronoun and instead have their name used in that place. The world is becoming a place where people are more willing to be their “true authentic self” and we here at the YMCA Academy welcome this inclusion and self expression.

The LGBTQ2SIA+ Alliance club has started an initiative to make pronoun buttons available to all who desire them. Pictured are just a few of the collection of buttons that were made, in house, on our very own button press. For those that don’t know about the LGBTQ2SIA+ Alliance it is a space where people from all walks of life come together to discuss things such as pop culture, current affairs, and other issues ranging from the topical to the seemingly trivial, usually through a lens of LGBTQ2SIA+ experiences and perspective. Allies are, of course, always welcome in this space.

For more information on why pronouns matter, and why pronoun buttons are important see the following link.

Creating with Code

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In Introduction to Computer Studies we have spent the past week working with python, a simple programming language that is the basis for many programs and games that some may be familiar with. We have been creating basic programs that allow users to input commands and interact with the program. This includes a question and guessing game where users are trying to guess what the computer is “thinking of.” It can be a challenging unit for some learners, but most find it the most rewarding because they have a list of products to look back at and see how far they’ve come.

Covid Films and Movie Posters

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These are certainly interesting times with a lot to process. In our communications technology course we’ve taken it upon ourselves to unpack some of that by making movies about our time during the pandemic. The movies ranged from documentaries to post apocalyptic science fiction themes. They were done with care, taking physical distancing and safety precautions into account. We all had a lot of fun, and learned so much about the movie-making process, such as filming, editing, and voice overs.

Playing with Code

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During the final weeks of Exploring Computer Technology we have been learning about, and learning to, code. Specifically we have been using a programming language called Python to write programs, starting with very basic and moving to more complex programs.

There is a beauty to the code, as it is with any language. Students have learned how to write, and troubleshoot, their own code. They have developed a unique style for their code, and as it can be seen there are many different solutions to the same problem, demonstrating that programming in Python, as well as other languages, can be a creative process.

They were tasked with such projects as pretending they were a game developer who is tasked with creating a magical ring that grants a wish, as well as more mundane programs such as a calculator that asks for shapes and calculation types and runs the calculations for a 3D object returning values such as surface area and volume of simple solids.

Some students have had the desire to go beyond the classroom and use functions to write a simple “rock, paper, scissors” game, with a twist! Creating an actual game program, all using free, open source, resources that they can continue to use after class is over.