Skoolcade held its 2023 student-build video game competition on March 4 at Rio Vista Middle School. Not only was it the stage for students to showcase the games they had been designing but it gave them a chance to see professionals in different coding industries. The judges of the Skoolcade competition were professionals from gaming companies including Blizzard Entertainment, employees from NAVAIR Pt. Magu, and other experts in coding.
Skoolcade was born at a teacher conference where Anne Jenks, a teacher at McKinna Elementary School in Oxnard, told a peer about the coding club she started at Mckinna. Gus Garcia and David Romano, two teachers in the Rio district, and Jay Sorenson, the Ed Tech Coordinator for OUHSD, all believed that Jenks’ coding club could expand beyond her school and their districts, and could become a county-wide program. Not long after, in 2017, Ventura County’s only student video game competition had its inaugural challenge, Skoolcade, where students presented the video games they had built in coding clubs all across the county.
However, the opportunities for students who compete at Skoolcade don’t start at the annual competition. Students who participate in coding clubs at schools are engaged in learning in ways they weren’t before. Through coding games they learn about language arts, math, and science by coding educational games. They learn how to use coordinates, sequences, and scientific principles all in the process of building a game to compete in Skoolcade. Beyond the knowledge they learn in coding, these students get practical social experience by being able to effectively work as a team. Students who collaborate in coding clubs and Skoolcade have been seen to focus and be more engaged in classroom settings.
Skoolcade has more recently started a two week intensive program called Skoolcade Academy, it is an interactive language program for English learners. It uses video games as a means to develop upon speaking English. While learning to make digital posters and virtual games, students learn language skills such as writing, speaking, and reading. In addition to this, Skoolcade Academy has a teacher’s edition to help teachers bring coding into the classroom and develop coding clubs or classes.
