In today's workshop, Aaron Weeden made a surprise guest appearance for Doug Ivers. Immediately, the class got working on a new programming challenge with Aaron; programming a simple digital clock. They started out the day by conversing about the problem of converting minutes to seconds and then displaying the them in digital format. After working on converting minutes to seconds by using code, the class took a break.
After a short break, the class began to look at if-then-else statements. Aaron brought up a scenario in which numbers less than 10 would require a zero before them. He then showed the class how to start writing the code needed to accomplish this task, but challenged each student to go beyond the point of relying on the guidelines and to become self-sufficient. For the last portion of the class today Aaron taught the class how to create and implement arrays in programming. By using the arrays, programmers can manipulate entire segments of data with a global command rather than changing each piece of code by hand. This concept brought the class into the world of higher level programming languages like Javascript and C++. Once everyone had a chance to work with Aaron on his or her projects, the workshop day was over. However, anyone with extra time was able to keep working on programming in groups and with Aaron to further hone their new skills.