Students involved in the Twice Exceptional program will be engaging in a full-year course on App Design, with a focus on game development. The Youth Digital App Design 1 syllabus contains 12 modules, complete with video walk-throughs, quizzes, and demonstrations which will walk students through the basics of app development. The software suite that we are using is called Clickteam Fusion 2, a professional-grade program used to create apps.

The app our students are currently designing is similar in concept to the popular game Angry Birds. It will be designed so that it may be tested and installed on our school iPads, but it will not be publicly available on the App store.

Twice Exceptional teacher Mr. Adam Maturo is pleased with how eager the students are about this year-long project:

So far, the students have impressed me with their enthusiasm and ability to quickly master a professional-grade software suite. The range of students from grade 7 to 12 Plus has provided additional opportunities for the older students to have more of a mentoring role for their younger peers while learning cooperatively. I believe that we are breaking new ground in special education by offering a course that gives students real-world skills that are applicable to a rapidly growing field of application and game design.

The students are currently midway through the second of the twelve modules and are working on programming the basics structure of the app, such as player physics, object interaction, and the scoring mechanism of the game. As the course progresses, students be able to express their creativity by designing their own levels for the game, changing the theme, and adding sound effects.