Technology & Media Literacy

In the Lower School, students take a Computer, Engineering and Design (CED) course each year, starting with basic coding and computer skills and moving toward creating multimedia presentations, research, and other more complex tasks.

In Fifth Grade, students transform into digital storytellers as they create informative videos throughout the year. For a memorable project, students utilize iMovie to produce an engaging video documenting their field trip to Camp Orkila on Orcas Island. By incorporating titles, photos, video footage, captions, music, voiceovers, and special effects, students craft a fun and comprehensive account of their experiences and adventures at camp.

In the Middle School, CED courses are part of a quarterly rotation with visual arts, drama, and music courses each year. Below are some snapshots of different grades of our technology program.

In Sixth Grade, students step into the role of a game developer. Students explore four key pillars of a game: programming, digital art, audio design, and hardware engineering. Students then apply their learning, workflow tools, and collaboration skills to create their own game studio and build a fully interactive, original game, including coding a program, designing art/animation, coding digital audio, and developing a custom physical game controller specifically engineered to play their unique creation.

In Eighth Grade, students trace the evolution of digital systems, moving from the fundamental principles of electrons and circuitry to the cutting edge of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Students gain practical experience by building everything from simple paper circuits to programming complex physical computing tools and microcontrollers. The course culminates in students designing and prototyping a circuit to solve a problem in their community, while also analyzing the emerging influence and ethics of AI.

In our Upper School CED courses, students move beyond textbooks to become makers, designers, and problem-solvers. Students tackle real-world challenges that require creativity, analytical thinking, and technical skill. They learn to code functional programs, analyze complex datasets, prototype physical designs, and think critically about how technology and design impact people's lives. Students build, test, analyze, and iterate on their ideas while learning to make informed decisions and navigate trade-offs. These experiences cultivate not just technical competence but also resilience, collaboration, and the confidence to contribute meaningfully to their communities.

In this project, students use the engineering design process to redesign a fictional apartment building for improved safety in an earthquake-prone region. Students build and test scale models by taking video data during simulated earthquakes. Through analyzing the resulting data, students learn about the challenges of collecting, interpreting, displaying, and analyzing data to make and defend informed design decisions while considering necessary trade-offs.

Students also learn software engineering and object-oriented programming using the Java language, gaining experience across the full development cycle, including designing effective solutions, developing robust algorithms, and managing information through essential data structures. The curriculum emphasizes problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration via hands-on projects. This course builds a strong foundation for advanced computer science study and explores the social and ethical impacts of computing.