Published on April 15, 2021
This semester students in the Internet Programming and Mobile Application Development courses at Warwick High School had an opportunity to connect with industry professionals to learn more about the art of design and how essential it is in software development.
Students in these courses recently had the chance to connect with Jeff Feeman, Scenic Production Artist at Sight & Sound Theatres, in Lancaster. Through a virtual meeting he discussed different aspects of his career field, and then presented the class with an industry problem they were facing at right at Sight & Sound. They needed to figure out a concept where they can store documentation in a way that communicates changes made during the set design and build process, but allows different departments to interact with it seamlessly.
Students began building theoretical concepts and presentations that would address this issue for Sight & Sound Theatres.
Pairs of students gave a presentation over Google Meet to Jeff, and afterwards received critical and authentic feedback on their ideas. Students in these classes created visuals of their design challenge, while explaining and walking through each step of their concept.
The main goal of this project was to allow students to hear from industry professionals dealing with real problems in their field. “I believe it is extremely important that students have the chance to connect what they are doing in the classroom, matters to the outside world,” stated Mr. Jeff Wile, Computer Science teacher at Warwick High School. “It is my hope that through this engagement with Sight & Sound that students will transfer some of the ‘thoughtfulness’ of building an idea for someone else translates into their website designs.”
For these computer science students it seemed that getting started was the hardest point. Jeff from Sight & Sound Theatres presented a complex problem that was a bit overwhelming at first. The students had to spend time thinking, researching, and talking through ideas to come up with the best solution for the task at hand. Very similar to issues faced in the work environment.