Mr. A teaches Computer Science, Design Technology, robotics, and physical computing in China. His students build games, circuits, prototypes, sensor systems, and working machines, then explain, test, and improve them.
Students design systems, write code, build prototypes and collect data. Testing and revision are part of each project, along with a clear explanation of what works and what still needs improvement.
A student-built sensor platform for collecting water-quality data from a local canal, combining microcontrollers, waterproofing, power management, environmental science, and design iteration.
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Students learn that code is a material you can shape. They build playable games in MakeCode Arcade — events, variables, loops, conditionals — and keep design documents that explain every decision. Debugging is taught as a discipline, not a rescue.
Code leaves the screen. Students wire circuits, program microcontrollers, read sensors, and log real data from the physical world. Every build is tested, measured, and explained in technical writing — because a circuit that works once is not the same as a system that works.
Students graduate from blocks to Python, from circuits to autonomous systems. They build robots that navigate, sensor networks that report, and AI-assisted workflows — then defend their work the way engineers do: with data, tests, and finished artifacts.
From MYP design and applied programming to a two-year Higher Level course: Python, algorithms, computing systems and an independent computational solution.
This is a small simulation of the water-quality monitor Grade 8 students wire and program. Drag the sliders and watch the threshold logic respond — the same if/elif/else students write on a real ESP32.
How a chess-training app for my son became a lesson in building personal software with AI.
Students move beyond a USB-powered classroom demonstration and build a protected, independently powered embedded system: managing energy, protecting components, conditioning analog signals, integrating digital and analog sensors, and collecting data that can be tested rather than merely displayed.