Due to the increasing interest in coding, LZ has decided to add MobileMakers to its courses. The new iOS coding class will feature more room for creativity and flexibility, as compared to other coding classes.

With this class, students will be able to “build apps and then put them on your own Apple device if you want […] and then use it yourself,” Margaret Koy, MobileMakers teacher, said. 

To build these one-of-a-kind apps, students will be learning the iOS language SWIFT in order to code and build apps. For this, “each student will be given a MacBook Pro to code anywhere, which I think is pretty phenomenal,” Julie Bryniczka, Math Department Chair, said. 

Bryniczka added that there are no prerequisites and no grade level requirements. She pointed out how MobileMakers is an “introductory course” that can be a great basis for taking more of the harder computer science classes, such as AP Computer Science, and is especially useful for students, given the current digital climate.

“It’s so tangible to real life because [many of us] have our iPhones and I think it’ll be really cool to put an app on your phone that you created yourself. It’s powerful,” Bryniczka said.

Koy similarly praised the “amazing” class for its many valuable traits and hopes that students will learn that “the class really helps you focus on problem-solving which is a huge skill that everybody needs to have to move forward in life.”

However, she expressed her concerns about teaching a new class under the challenging situations of COVID-19. 

“There’s always the initial anxiety about how it’s going to run and that’s even more true because we have no idea how this is going to work,” Koy said. “I guess the philosophy is going to be [that] we’re all in this together and learning together. It’s going to be scary and challenging but exciting and fun. It will definitely be worth [students’] time.”