During the Fall Semester of 2021, the Advanced Technologies Academy seniors learned how to write programs using Swift code. Swift is a programming language used to create mobile applications for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. In the Mobile App Development I class, students learned to write simple Swift programs that solved the Quadratic Formula, calculated dog years to human years, and converted different currency values. The students also explored the code of a full mobile app game developed in Swift and then manipulated the code to make their own version of the game.

In the Mobile App Development II class, students expanded their knowledge of the Swift programming language by developing an actual mobile app game using Apple’s Xcode software. The students began by learning about SwiftUI and how to add images to their code. After a few exercises in Xcode, the students began working on a simple word-guessing game where each player has a limited number of turns to guess the letters in a word. Each incorrect guess results in an apple falling off the tree. The player wins by guessing the word correctly before all the apples are gone. We found this project to be a very challenging learning experience.