Strathmore Trophy 2015

Anna Morrison, Caelan Smith, Darcie Holme, Madeline Kenningale and Shaun Ellis all attended the 20^th Strathmore Trophy at the University Of Dundee with Mr Murray.  There were teams from Angus, Fife and from other schools in Dundee all contesting this prestigious prize.  The teams had to design and build an App for a phone within the two hours of the competition.  The Harris team designed an App called ‘MapApp’ which allowed people to navigate around the new school and it would show them how to get from where you were to your next class. 

Dare to be Digital 2015

14 of our S6 pupils applied to and were selected to take part in this year’s Dare to be Digital competition at Abertay University.  For one week pupils put their computing, art and music skills to the test in a competition to encourage digital entertainment designers of the future. Pupils received expert supervision and guidance from Future Fossil Studios and Abertay University.  This provided pupils with an insight into the challenges of a career in the digital industries. The winning team consisted of our very own Caroline Smith.  The team to gain second place was an all Harris Academy team including Shannon Lee, Dylan Keningale, David MacDonald, Roberto Poppa and Jane Taraskeviciute

A day in the life of a Software Engineer

Joe Wright kindly spent a day within the Computing Department.  He met with both the Higher and Advanced Higher classes.  Joe shared with the class what a day in the life of a Software Engineer would look like. He also delivered an introduction to Object Oriented Programming.

A day in the life of a Computing Student & Frist Lego League

Robert Gordon University visited the Computing Department last month to share with the Higher and Advanced Higher classes what to expect from a Computing Degree and provided an insight into the life of a student.  Mark and Angela also advertised an opportunity to take participate in the First Lego League.  A group of enthusiastic pupils asked for more information.  The computing department has now received the Lego kit and programming software.  We will keep you updated with our progress.

Meet the Expert was a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) event.

This opportunity enabled pupils to meet scientists and engineers working at the cutting edge of technology.  The experts will be from the ICT and Digital Technology sector.

This was an interactive event where pupils were encouraged to try out the technology, programs and software.  Meeting and having an opportunity to ask professionals from various backgrounds questions like "how is programming making sound better?", "what programming language is used to write web based apps?", "Why did you become a programmer?", "What is the future of Computing?" and many more.

The S2 group particularly liked listening and talking to the staff from Guerilla Tea.  Guerilla Tea is an award winning independent games company based in Dundee.  We also enjoyed trying out their games

http://www.guerillatea.com/

A big thank you to the PTPA who funded our travel

We have had a very exciting year to date, our highlights have been our two visiting professionals. S2 pupils welcomed Debbie Forster the UK Managing Director of Apps for Good.  This is the award-winning education technology movement, which Computing Science and Business Education are working with to teach our pupils how to create apps that change their world.

This week some of our S3 pupils welcomed Fraser MacLean who talked with the pupils about animation.  Fraser grew up in Edinburgh; he was trained by Scottish Film Training Trust as a live action film editor and has worked on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Spacejam and Disney’s Tarzan.  Animation enables our pupils to start thinking about computational constructs and is a great way to capture their interest.