Pieces of Peace – AmeriCorps Workshop | Computer Clubhouse of Tacoma

On March 14th, current AmeriCorps members at Peace Community Center visited the Computer Clubhouse of Tacoma for their Friday training. What they didn’t know was that they’d all become Makers! The overall goals for this workshop were:

encourage the AmeriCorps members to discover/recognize their strengths both individually and collectively
work as a team to get a task done
become Makers! (and eat fruit of course).

The workshop began with a brief introduction of the Computer Clubhouse of Tacoma, and the Computer Clubhouse Network. The introduction was followed by the Clubhouse Coordinator Jaleesa Trapp sharing her AmeriCorps and Clubhouse stories. (Jaleesa served as an AmeriCorps member at Peace Community Center before becoming the Clubhouse Coordinator).
After the introductions, the group got right to work. They began by getting familiar with Makey Makey by creating PacMan game controllers out of aluminum foil, followed by pianos using fruit.

Before attending the workshop, each member was asked to think about two personal strengths they bring to Peace Community Center. Members were put into groups based on the program level they serve (elementary, middle, and high school). Each person had to create a physical piece that represents them/their strength. The physical piece had to be conductive, because it later controlled their animation in Scratch. After creating the physical piece, they began coding in Scratch. Each member selected an image to represent them, and when a certain key is pressed, the image turns into their strength. (Example: My image was a bat, and when the space bar is pressed the word “compassion” appears).
The groups had an example piece of code to build upon, and truly made each animation their own. It was great to hear all of the words of encouragement being thrown around as individuals searched for images that represented them, or debated what their strength is. In the end, each group accomplished the goals that were set out for them. They were challenged to identify a strength, create a physical and digital representation, and work with their team to complete a program.

Below are photos and links to their group projects. To view more photos, visit our Flickr page.

Elementary Team: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/19295793/