We recently took our fourth and fifth grade technology club students on a field trip to the Microsoft store at Perimeter Mall in Atlanta! During our visit, students participated in a program to learn about coding. This trip would not have been possible without my district's technology project specialist and my Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert Southeast Region lead, Sandi Adams, who connected me with the store. The store employees were very helpful in planning our trip. They designed the experience to teach students about coding and also various Microsoft products.
Before we disembarked the bus, Sandi gave all of our students purple OneNote Avenger capes! The students loved being Microsoft superheroes. This also made it easier to keep track of the kids in the mall! When we arrived in the store, Microsoft Community Development Specialist Katia greeted us and led the students to tables with Surface tablets. She told the students they would be learning how to code a video game using Touch Develop. Katia led the students through the first few exercises but after that let them work at their own pace. There were videos within the site for students to watch if they were confused. Katia and another Microsoft employee, Ronald, were available to help students also.
After students had successfully programmed the game, Katia and Ronald allowed students time to explore several Microsoft products, including Minecraft EDU, Xbox and Kinect, the Fresh Paint app, and Surface tablets.
Our field trip inspired many of our students to continue learning more about coding using Touch Develop. Several of our students even plan to use this site to create a game to enter into our district technology fair. We are so thankful to Microsoft for allowing us the opportunity to visit their Atlanta store!
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