At Kodecoon Academy, we are strong advocates for our students to apply what they have learned and be active creators of technology, not passive consumers.
To ensure we keep our students stimulated even while staying at home during this circuit breaker, we challenged our students to participate in the #CoSpaceAtHome creation contest! Organised by CoSpaces Edu, an online platform for kids to build anything in 3D, students from all over the world can submit their creation using a visual coding language (CoBlocks) to program their creations and explore in Virtual and/or Augmented Reality!
The rules are simple: participants will need to create an original and interactive CoSpace on their own, they can include animations, constructions from building blocks, and CoBlocks code. Additionally, they will have to create the project connecting to the current situation of Coronavirus pandemic as a theme.
Contest results came out just two days ago, and we are so excited to reveal that…Two of our Kodecooners, Miriam and Jesse, have clinched the positions for creating the best exhibition and best game respectively!
We reached out to them after getting the good news and read on to see our students’ creations and what they have to say about the #CoSpaceAtHome contest experience!
Miriam, 10 years old, for the best #CoSpaceAtHome exhibition
About the project:
Inspired by other museums in the real world, Miriam, a young museum enthusiast, loves visiting museums especially interactive exhibitions. To educate individuals about COVID-19, she decided to create a virtual museum with her own variation of an interactive exhibition.
Miriam’s sense of humour cracked me up, as I’m immersed in her virtual exhibition right now and saw how she added in very realistic social interactions too! I mean, look at those kids running around in the exhibition!
There’s a student tour happening too! And there’s also interactive elements where you can click on for more information!
My favourite part of the exhibition will be this segment – a virtual skit inside the exhibition! Upon clicking the button, the characters engage in a conversation and show you a plausible everyday situation of how individuals can spread the virus!
We asked Miriam how she felt after knowing she won the contest.
“I feel happy and excited as this is my first coding competition, and I felt all my hard work was worth it. The biggest challenge was doing the building arrangement, the sizes for each part and coding the icons… However I had a challenge with the codes too as I had the maximum number of code allowed. I learnt to persevere as I kept editing and changing and redoing. I also learnt how to use CoSpaces Edu to create amazing things such as animations and stories and, in this case, exhibitions.”
Any more closing remarks to other peers your age who want to know more about your experience from this #CoSpaceAtHome contest?
“My experience was fun and it was cool. The CoBlocks code was similar to the Scratch programme so it was relatively easy to learn (I learn Scratch as well.) I want to encourage people to use coding as a chance to build amazing things and educate people through their talents and creativity. Overall I had a lot of fun in this contest and I am thankful that I have won.”
Check out the project here: Fantastical Museum of COVID-19
Jesse, 12 years old, for the best #CoSpaceAtHome game
About the project:
The concept of social distancing is the driving force in this interactive supermarket shopping game. Jesse believes that with social distancing, it can help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Cleverly captured in this everyday shopping situation, Jesse wants to create more awareness on the importance of social distancing through this game.
*Note: The resolution of the screenshots is affected because I made a GIF capture, definitely not how the game is like! Check out the link :D*
Upon entering the game, there is a pop-up window with the game rules. I like how realistic it is – waiting to enter the supermarket due to crowd limiting measures and look at the queue markers on the floor!
Even though there are only five items to purchase, it is not as easy as it seems! Ten seconds into my game I accidentally got too close to another shopper and “flouted my social distancing rule”. The game will then minus a life and puts you back to the starting point.
I was very careful not to bump into any of the running kids in the mart. Whew… I like the feedback the game provides when I purchase an item correctly. There’s also a pop-up window with bite-sized information about the coronavirus!
Overall, I ended up spending up quite a bit of time playing the game.
We asked Jesse to share some thoughts.
“Happy! I guess the coding part (is a little more challenging) as it’s a little more different from scratch and app Inventor. It is very interesting and fun. You could like, use 3D models instead of 2D sprites (to implement in the game)!”
Check out the project here: Interactive shopping game during COVID-19 times
We are also super proud of our two other Kodecooners, Bryan and Dehui, who got in the runner-up for the games that they have developed!
Check out Bryan’s project, a game where you have to get people to wear masks to protect themselves and others from the virus: The Earth vs COVID-19
Check out De Hui’s project, a virus-shooting game where you try to fight the virus: CoronaTime
Congratulations to all of you and well done! We are so, so proud.
Read more from CoSpaces Edu blog