Students in Canyon High School’s App Development program showcased original apps and video games they designed and developed throughout the semester at their own miniature technology expo on Thursday.

Inspired by major gaming and technology expos like the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Demo Day transformed the classroom into an interactive showcase where students across campus could stop by, try out projects, meet the developers, and experience student-created technology firsthand.

Alexandra Ines | KHTS News

“The main thing is that people actually want to see the games. There’s a buzz on campus about seeing the games or the apps, but usually, they want to see the games,” said Josh Underwood, a computer science teacher at Canyon.

In the fall, students learn Unity and C# programming, including AI tools, and pitch project ideas, with the class voting on the best concepts. Students are also taught real-world development and collaboration techniques such as Scrum methodology.

“I’ll call them ‘modified Scrums,’ because we only meet three days a week, there’s not really enough time to do a daily stand-up every single day. But there is a project owner; they determine all the vision of the project. There’s a Scrum Master, who’s responsible for making sure that everything stays organized and aligned, that we’re hitting the critical pieces,” Underwood said.

In the spring, students build their projects from scratch with a limited budget for assets. This year marked the third Demo Day, during which students showcased their games at a school-wide event using the modified Scrum methodology.

Alexandra Ines | KHTS News

“If every single group gets to a point where I consider it a worthy product, then we have demo day. If even one group doesn’t get there, no Demo Day for that year,” Underwood said. “We’ve been running this class for probably 10 years, and this is our third-ever Demo Day.”

The event included pizza from Slice House, which has supported the final project for the last two years.

“Honestly, pizza is one of the things I’m most nervous about, because if it’s not ready when I get back, I’ve got lots of hungry kids,” Underwood said.

Underwood said he enjoys seeing the excitement and pride students feel during Demo Day, especially when parents attend.

“Demo Day is kind of like a mini E3 conference, where they’re busy showing off, and they have to run a booth, and they have all these kids coming through,” Underwood said. “For some of them, it’s better than scoring a touchdown on the football field. That’s instantaneous and over. Now you’ve got an hour-long showing, and afterward just seeing the looks on their faces … we’re even inviting some of their parents to come down … I’m actually really excited to see that.”

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