Taking Your Club on The Road
This week the club had its first field trip. I decided that it would be fun and educational to attend one of Apple’s App Lab: Code Your First App Session. As I have mentioned before, the best way to find them is to use the Apple Store app or website and select the group events. From there you can filter based on your location and needs.
Depending on the size of your club, you may need to travel a bit further to find an Apple Store that can accommodate your club. Luckily, we are about 35 minutes from Apple Park and the Visitors Center location can handle large groups. Unless you have a large Apple Store in a mall close to you, your best bet would be a stand-alone store for larger groups.
Once you have chosen the location and session, you’ll enter contact information and your group size. There is an option to have Apple contact you about the event. I went ahead and chose this option, as on the website they state the group size is limited to 15 and I have 18 members. After submitting the form you’ll receive an email confirming your reservation and a link to add a card to your Apple wallet.
If you chose to have Apple contact you, you’ll receive a separate email from the location to answer any questions. They confirmed for me that a group size of 18 is no problem for their location.
The next step was to print permission slips and get some parent volunteers/drivers. We are a private school so we do not have access to buses to use for field trip. I sent out both the permission slip and driver request forms about a month in advance. This gave the club members enough time to lose the forms a few times and the parents enough time to do any required paperwork prior to driving.
When you arrive at your location try to be a few minutes early and have everyone together. You’ll want to check-in with a specialist and they’ll direct you to where they hold the session. For us it was in front of the video wall. I briefly spoke to the specialist who was going to do our session to let them know who we are and that they all have some coding experience in Swift Playgrounds. The specialist appreciated the information.
Once the session is underway, don’t expect to sit around and sip your coffee. I spent the majority of the session helping get club members setup on the iPad and then correcting errant deletions and navigation errors. Parent volunteers can enjoy the Apple Store or a coffee.
The session was scheduled for an hour, but the Apple Store did not have anything scheduled directly after so they extended our session another 20 minutes which was awesome. At the end of the session the club members got to share their work with each other.
I thanked our specialist and then we had the obligatory bathroom breaks before heading outside. I knew that club members would be hungry after the session. Being at a stand-alone location there were few choices for drinks and snacks appropriate for members, so I brought along supplies for them. However since we were at the Visitor Center there was the perk of a coffee bar for our parent volunteer/drivers. That was definitely a bonus for them and me so we could enjoy drinks while the kids were having their snack.
After the drive back to school, many of the parents shared with me how amazing the experience was and how impressed they were with their member’s skills in coding.
Planning your trip:
Check the Apple Store app or website to search for a group session.
Make a reservation.
Send out permission slips and driver/ volunteer forms (if needed) a few weeks in advance.
Plan whether you will need drinks and snacks for your club.
Arrive a few minutes early and check-in.
Let the specialist leading the session know what your group is about and what skills they have.
Be ready to assist the specialist with iPad support (especially if you have a larger club).
Take photos and enjoy the experience.