Episode # 73

Exploring Unreal Learning Possibilities with BioMed Science Academy

June 3, 2025

About This Episode

On this week’s episode, we are joined by five students from Biomed Science Academy discussing their experiences in Don Heilman’s technology class, where they learn to develop games and problem-solving skills with Unreal Engine.

Guests

BioMed Science Academy

As part of a cutting-edge technology class, these students are diving into the world of coding, game design, and interactive media. From building their own games to experimenting with professional-grade tools like Unreal Engine, they’re developing skills that go far beyond the classroom.

Under the guidance of a teacher with a background in the gaming industry, they’re not only learning how technology works—they’re learning how to shape its future.

Transcript

Kara  0:00

Today’s episode is sponsored by Learning Blade. Middle school is the ideal time for career exploration. With Learning Blade, you can easily integrate STEM and career awareness concepts into your classroom. Find out if this resource is free in your state at learning blade.com. Thanks, Learning Blade. Hey. Is this thing on? Are we recording? Can I get a tech person?

 

Caryn  0:28

Oh, for the love of med tech.

 

Kara  0:34

All right. Joining me today is Adeline, Andrew, Max, Rogan and Taylor, who are all students at BioMed Science Academy. So hey to every one of you.

 

Adeline, Andrew, Max, Rogan and Taylor  0:47

Hi,

 

Kara  0:50

So a few weeks ago, I actually spoke to Mr. Hileman for the podcast. So if our listeners haven’t heard that one. Mr. Hileman teaches a technology class at BioMed Science Academy, and these are some of his students. And so I want to know from you guys a little bit about what you like the most about being in Mr. Hileman’s class, I think we’llstart there.

 

Max  1:25

First I’ll start Yeah,

 

Kara  1:28

okay, so this is Max right?

 

Max  1:30

Yeah,

 

Kara  1:31

Yes, okay.

 

Max  1:32

The main thing I like in this class is he is has a great ability of teaching us and making sure we have time and showing us what we need to do.

 

Kara  1:43

Okay,

 

Adeline  1:44

Yeah, I agree. I really like the creativity that comes with it. He teaches very slow but concise. I like that. And if we ever have any struggles, he’ll individually help us. It’s nice, very

 

Taylor  1:58

He’s very, very organized, and that can be very helpful when you’re working with technology and coding.

 

Rogan  2:07

I want to go off what basil said about how he’s organized, because I have OCD, and I really need that, but it’s also the ability to be creative, and how he just teaches us why we do certain things, like with organization.

 

Andrew  2:20

I don’t have that much to talk about, since everyone has already talked, but he just very he explains everything very well. Sometime explains, like too long, he still explains it, so everyone understands it.

 

Kara  2:31

Okay, so and two, does he, I guess, kind of approach teaching, the way most of your teachers do, or is it like a different is it a different take, like, do you guys have to kind of figure things out on your own? Or,

 

Adeline  2:49

Well, with  biomed, we go, we are all hands on. So all our teachers, they have a ton of different styles of teaching. But Mr. Hileman, he has more of because he has this technology well experience, he’s able to bring all these different perspectives and just teach us with what he’s experienced with all like it’s, I don’t know, it’s just this different layer,

 

Taylor  3:10

yeah, going off of what Adeline said, I think his teaching is different compared to the other Teachers, because he’s working on so many things at once, and his lessons can be very guided, but at the same time, if you want to learn something, you just bring it up to him and he’ll teach it. So we kind of cool. We have a lot more choose insane whatwe’re learning about,

 

Adeline  3:35

Definitely, yeah,

 

Max  3:37

well, I think is that he has a different way of teaching than the other teachers, because he does it with you. He’ll at the same time, he teaches us, and we’ll kind of just work together. Any problems we have, it’ll be easily solved, because he’s also doing it with us.

 

Adeline  3:54

A lot of walkthroughs.

 

Kara  3:56

Okay, that’s really cool. All right, so can you guys tell me about maybe a project that you’re currently working on, and what each of your roles are in that project.

 

Adeline  4:11

Well, we don’t really have group projects, but I know they do. Yeah,

 

Taylor  4:14

we have a few people working together, and then we have a few people working on just individual things. So then if we want to go down the line and talk about like what we’re working on. So

 

Max  4:21

I’ve worked on this game called a rolling ball game, and it’s what everybody else has worked on, and it’s really just teaching us how to use Unreal Engine and how to use technology such as that, and we’re allowed to add extra stuff. And what I did, I added a jump, a dash, and just different codes with it.

 

Kara  4:45

That’s cool. So is your game strictly like, are you doing the coding and like the graphic pieces of it?

 

Max  4:55

So what we do is we don’t really make our own graphics. Fix right now, if you want, you can like Photoshop or whatever, but we do do our own coding.

 

Kara  5:08

Okay, cool.

 

Adeline  5:10

I personally don’t have a specific game right now. I’m just going through a ton of different stuff, especially because I like the arts and it’s a bit hard with what we’re doing. But I just have an overall sandbox. I mess with the sound and the coding and the graphics. I even like working on like a different software to help with music and different production with that. So that’s kind of what I’m doing

 

Kara  5:32

which is cool

 

Rogan  5:33

So one of the things that I’ve been working on is I am hired by this YouTuber right now, and I’m working on an ISO pod game with her and me and Andrew were also working. We were working together for a 2D game, but I split off of that to go work on the ISO pod game.

 

Kara  5:51

Can you tell me what ISO pod ISO pod game is?

 

Rogan  5:55

It’s basically a game where you’re a little ISO pod and you have to, like, traverse through. We don’t really have the entire game built so far, just the core mechanics.

 

Kara  6:05

Okay,

 

Andrew  6:06

Speaking of the Unreal Engine project, the name vert, so pretty much just me working out in that. But for the main part that we both worked on the same time, they say to the Metro Mania, have a few different games, not a thing like that, which is not meant for Unreal Engine. More. Unreal Engine, more Morphe, MT, but not just me reworking on it, but mainly just map building. So what I do

 

Taylor  6:29

with my game I am doing like a personal project. I’m more so just doing it for the class, because my skill really lies in creating textures and 3D models and sometimes soundtracks for games. So I do that for other kids sometimes.

 

Kara  6:51

Oh, cool. So I am curious, like, does the class allow you to do things like that? Like, where if I came to you and said, Hey, I don’t know how to do the sound for this. Can you come in and do that? Or, I mean, do you guys cross like that a lot,

 

Taylor  7:14

So not a lot of the time. But like, you need help on something. You can ask around. You just have to use your own time for that instead of working on it during class. We do get time during class after assignments and being taught what we’re here to learn, but yeah, crossover a lot of the time.

 

Max  7:38

We also have a study hall that we call win time, and it’s mainly just work that we need to do, or work that we want to do. And a lot of kids work in that tech class at that time to work on different things.

 

Kara  7:54

Oh, nice.

 

Adeline  7:57

Oh, I’m sorry.

 

Kara  7:58

No go. No, go ahead. Go ahead.

 

Adeline  7:59

I’m guessing what you were asking is if other students can provide for other students, like, say, someone wants to make a 3D model for a different students game. So what you’re asking,

 

Kara  8:08

yeah, okay, yeah, skills like crossing, skills like, say, I’m good at coding, but I have no idea how to, like, draw what I’m envisioning.

 

Adeline  8:18

Well, yeah, for example, that’s what they did. If Mr. Hileman agrees with you and thinks he he usually he’s pretty optimistic, and he thinks you can do this if you’re determined. So he’ll usually say yes, if you want to,

 

Rogan  8:32

yeah, crossover. I am absolutely terrible at anything that has to do with world building, like design and anything like that, except I really love the coding aspect of it, so me and Andrew got together, and I did a lot of the coding for the game, and he did

 

Andrew  8:47

post development design

 

Kara  8:51

That’s really cool. And I’ve heard several of you talk about Unreal Engine, like, how would you describe that to somebody who’s never heard of it?

 

Rogan  9:02

I would describe Unreal Engine. So it’s basically it. It’s mainly an engine for indie game developers, because it’s really simplistic to use, and you don’t really have to go in with a lot of that raw code. You can bait. You can make a game based off of solely the Unreal Engine blueprints. But if you did want to go deeper into it, you could use the added C Plus Plus to make more complex games.

 

Taylor  9:28

Unreal Engine, for me, is a way to make everything a little more understandable and easy, easier to access for a lot of people, because there are so many people with great talent who just can’t get into the industry because they can’t afford it, they don’t have the time, they don’t have the skill. It makes it’s a way that everyone can enjoy coding and building. Something that is their own kind of, okay, just really, it really breaks everything down so that it’s accessible for everyone.

 

Adeline  10:12

Yeah, I’d say very beginner friendly. But it doesn’t stay easy. If you want to go and branch out in the future, if you want to make it more complicated for yourself, you can definitely add all these layers, like what he said, C Plus Plus. It’s very accessible.

 

Kara  10:28

So could an old person like me figure this out?

 

Adeline, Andrew, Max, Rogan and Taylor  10:31

Probably, definate

 

Max  10:35

Unreal Engine is probably one of the most famous websites to make video games off, not websites software, software to make video games off. And there’s plenty of tutorials to do anything like a lot.

 

Taylor  10:49

Yeah,

 

Kara  10:50

okay,

 

Taylor  10:50

The big thing with coding is it’s all on Google. If you want to do something, it’s on Google. 95% of the time, you can find what you’re looking for on Google.

 

Adeline  11:01

And that’s what Mr. Holland taught us, too, because he’ll, he’ll walk us through the code, yes, but he, he’s also our teacher. He’s everyone’s teacher, so we can’t talk to everyone individually. So he’ll let us know, like, Oh, you’re allowed to look at different tutorials. You’re allowed to look at Google, as long as I approve that you want to do his code and stuff you could just throw it out there, go crazy,

 

Kara  11:25

wow,

 

Rogan  11:25

uh, comparing it to unity, which is all raw code, I would I know a lot of people start with Unity, but me, personally, I’m extremely glad that I started with Unreal Engine, because it’s just so more so more So much more simpler, simple. Compared to unity, because unity, you have to basically learn everything from scratch. There’s not nearly as many tutorials for beginners.

 

Adeline  11:50

Yeah, I’ve attempted things like Godot before, good, go dot or whatever that’s called. It’s a different game design software, and it was, it’s newer, so does it have many tutorials? So that’s when it was like, oh, I should probably stick to Unreal Engine with what we’re doing in class, because this is a bit not hard for me, but a bit confusing. And

 

Kara  12:13

gotcha,

 

Adeline  12:14

that’s why I like Unreal. It’s very smooth and it explain. There’s a lot of tutorials and explanations for what you’re doing.

 

Taylor  12:20

There anyone with a basic understanding of physics and how things move and work together can use Unreal Engine?

 

Kara  12:29

Okay? I was gonna say, because I just learned about it through Mr. Hileman and so I was Googling after our conversation, but I haven’t tried it out yet. So Mr. Hileman obviously came kind of from the gaming industry and decided to become a teacher. So how do you think having a teacher that comes from like that industry experience? How has that influenced your learning. Do you think?

 

Max  13:03

I would say it influenced ours a lot, because Him, knowing all this stuff already, just helped, just made it probably three times easier for us.

 

Adeline  13:14

Definitely, definitely, it almost inspires me a lot too. Because if you ever need anything, you should just talk to him, and he’ll describe all these different like, parts of the industry, like what I said, I like to do a bunch of the arts and stuff. So a lot of the times, he can walk you through that and how you can insert all that into the software, because he’s had that experience with all these different people and all these different groups, is just, yeah, inspiring.

 

Taylor  13:42

Umm I’d say mistakes are the way that we learn, and he’s made those same mistakes so so so many times that he can help prevent those mistakes. And mistakes are still made, but they happen a lot less because he has that experience, and can tell us, hey, you do this, your code is going to break,

 

Rogan  14:06

and I want to bounce off of what basil said. He taught us, like, how to use GitHub, and you want to use it this certain way, because if you upload a change that is the same as another change that someone else made, your entire game will break. And he taught us like not us like not to do that and how to also like organize your code so that other people can understand it if you’re working in a team.

 

Kara  14:30

Because of his, I guess, experience and way of teaching. Do you think that has changed your thinking about making I guess we kind of talked about this. Do you think it’s changed your thinking in the way games are made? Like because he’s brought that real kind of world experience to everything?

 

Taylor  15:00

Yeah, I’d say, so I’d say it’s changed a lot of perspective for a lot of us, because the way kids more so kind of gather things, is taking them and applying them to situations. So him having all of this experience and then teaching us, it kind of helps us apply to and I know a lot of us here want to move into the gaming industry when we are older, so it kind of tells us, like, what that’s going to be like.

 

Rogan  15:35

I say it’s changed my perspective on how video games were created a lot, because when I was a lot younger, probably around four or five. I thought that it was all binary code, which is zeros and ones, and then I thought it was all just raw code. And then I finally learned how it’s actually made with engines, and you actually get to see what’s happening, instead of just a string of code on your screen.

 

Kara  15:58

Cool, that’s a nice little shift. Have you guys all? Have all of you always been interested in, like, coding and technology?

 

Adeline  16:09

Yeah, I remember when I was younger, in second grade, this is when that experience kind of started. So I love that Mr. Holman’s class is bringing this back. But in second grade, my teacher pulled a few of us to do this little scratch, which is a different coding software for students, and like younger kids to do these, like coding block codes. So that’s what really inspired me to get into this, like, Oh, I think I want to do this story building, game design mindset. So I love that Mr. Hollands bring that out, and a lot of the students me,

 

Max  16:41

personally, I haven’t been a very big fan of tech until early last year when we first started using, or early last school year when we first started using, or when I first started using Scratch And just like editing different stuff and somewhat editing things already made. But this year, I like making my own stuff,

 

Taylor  17:06

So I’m gonna play a little bit of devil’s advocate, if that’s what you want to call it. I have never been a fan of technology stuff. I prefer being hands on and doing it how it’s supposed to be done. I have always been interested in creating art, graphics and 3D modeling, but nothing past that. I have never really been a big tech person, and I think Mr. Hileman’s class really opened my eyes to Yes, I can do it, but it’s not something I would take into a career.

 

Kara  17:44

Gotcha,

 

Rogan  17:46

I started in the like coding part of my life. I started a little bit later than most of you guys, which I know you said, second grade. I started probably in fifth grade, when I started scratch, and then sixth grade, once I got a actual laptop, I started learning Python, and from there, it’s just advanced. And Mr. Hileman’s class has also opened me up to the world of Photoshop. And now I really like doing, uh, drawing the sprites for my games.

 

Andrew  18:15

Oh, cool for me. And like, fourth, fifth grade is when I started using Scratch a lot. And I like when I when I first started using Scratch, I use it a lot, making a bunch of different making bunch of different games in there, because when I was I always wanted to do game design stuff like that. Okay, once with Mr. Hileman’s class, you got access  Unreal engine and just animate givers, and just go that far, then you could scratch.

 

Kara  18:34

Very cool, very cool. I hope that my little kiddos that I used to help with code.org maybe they’re where you are. Maybe they found a love of coding when they were in kindergarten, and now they’re somewhere cool.

 

Adeline  18:50

It’s definitely, it’s really something you’re just kind of throwing together, grow into this playable game. It’s, it’s amazing.

 

Kara  18:57

Yeah, that’s so cool. Into, like, I don’t know, I guess, what’s kind of cool about the whole process is, even though it is, like, on a screen or tech, it’s like, you can see, like, this thing that you created in the end, definitely like, even though you can’t hold it, you can, like, see your hard work. Teachers, you can now earn contact hours toward grad credit for listening to the podcast.

 

Caryn  19:28

Visit for the love of Ed tech.org, for more information.

 

Kara  19:32

Okay, so I’m gonna ask, and I would like for each of you to answer if and I can give you a minute to think about it. But what skills do you think you’ve gained from working on the different projects and being involved in the class, and how do you see those skills helping you in the future? Technically, I mean either out, not necessarily. Necessarily, just in school, but overall, like in the world.

 

Max  20:05

I’ll go first, if you guys don’t care, yeah, just go,

 

Kara  20:08

Okay,

 

Max  20:08

I’ve seen a lot of engaged learning, because I’m watching what I should be doing, and just mainly that into more patience, because we have to just take time on these and sometimes bigger projects, especially in tech, take a while.

 

Kara  20:29

Yeah, and they don’t always work the first time. Yeah,

 

Adeline  20:34

definitely influence and trusting yourself. It’s a big one. I know, personally, I have a lot of ideas. I have a lot of things in this brain, and with what we’re learning, it helps me just throw things out there with still combining this patient patience and, like, knowing that, yeah, I’m gonna make mistakes, but this is like, I don’t know it. I’m just able to see stuff grow. Like I said,

 

Kara  20:59

Yeah, well, it’s part that whole. It’s part of the process,

 

Adeline  21:03

definitely.

 

Kara  21:04

So, okay, sorry,

 

Taylor  21:06

No, you’re fine. Um, I think patience. I have a short patience, short temper with um, coding. It’s a lot of trial and error that I really have to, like, be patient with, like, I have to try this is gonna work. No, it’s not gonna work. So I got to try again. And I think for a lot of us that know the same, I also think personal agency, messy person, a lot of things in my brain. And it really makes me, like, think, Oh, is that name correctly? Oh, do I have that in the right place?

 

Rogan  21:47

I think it’s really helped me with organized organization, because, like, my code has to be very organized for me especially, and then also, it helped me stay more patient, because I used to have a really short temper, and now, like, I’ve learned, like, I need to go through with the code, because if I just stop here, then it won’t work.

 

Kara  22:10

No instant gratification. Go ahead. Sorry, Andrew.

 

Andrew  22:19

Like for everyone else, patience. Another thing, pretty much the biggest thing, because, like, learning, not learning, but like taking the time to actually go for your problems and just sticking with them the entire time. Till you actually get it correct, because running a fail multiple times too. Yeah, you give what you want,

 

Kara  22:33

yeah, for sure,

 

Adeline  22:35

it’s almost you have that determination of like, oh yeah, this is this isn’t going well, but I really want to see this game you build out, or this, this specific thing I’m doing, built out, and, um, that’s why it’s like, yeah, we’re all saying patience, but it really just helps. Like, yeah,

 

Kara  22:53

yeah, yeah. Well, and it’s like, be it probably being patient with yourself and with others, because you

 

Adeline  23:05

because, yeah, I know some people who might want to give up on their code, but a lot of the time you want to see something like you want to see a product. So this is inspiring you to just, yeah, be patient. Do it. You got to do it.

 

Kara  23:19

Keep at it. Yeah, yeah, I’m curious, so I guess too well, along with patience, it sounds like resiliency, too. Like, keep at it. I’ve got another question, just because I have talked to Mrs. Lang for the podcast too, and I am, like, extremely fascinated by your school in general. So can you guys, have you guys always gone to BioMed? Because I know that they just started with, like, elementary.

 

Adeline  23:49

I’ve been going since third grade, and that was right after COVID. So that was hybrid, which meant every other week was online. But I’ve been, yeah, doing it for I’ve been here for a bit.

 

Max  24:00

I’ve been here since third grade, also, which was the first year our grade was it was able to get to into BioMed,

 

Adeline  24:07

yeah, because before high school and up then after COVID, that’s when they started, like, oh, we should branch out

 

Andrew  24:16

Same thing here. I strated in third grade,

 

Kara  24:18

Third Grade

 

Rogan  24:19

um, I actually started in fourth grade and, okay, that’s about it.

 

Taylor  24:24

Well, you all are veterans, because I started halfway through last year.

 

Kara  24:29

Okay, well, then maybe Taylor, you would be the one to ask. I’m just curious how, how you think, like, the approach is different than like a traditional school.

 

Taylor  24:44

Oh, boy. Okay, before I went here, I went to a school that was out in the Amish country, so we’re very traditional. BioMed is so different the integrations that are put in to the learning are definitely what makes it a lot different. Like when we’re learning about a subject, gave it ELA, we’re not just learning about ELA, we’re also integrating in social studies, sometimes a little bit of math, we are learning about so many things at once, and BioMed really gives us a lot of opportunities as well that normal school kids just wouldn’t get this podcast as an example. If I would have stayed at my old school, I wouldn’t be here right now. I have so many friends, and I would not have the opportunity that I have here BioMed, with the way that it uses STEM to teach and show kids how to do things, not just digitally, but physically, and not just traditionally, but you’re really just living in it. And I think a lot of kids not only learn better that way, but it is the real way to teach.

 

Kara  26:06

Yeah, for sure. Well, because it sounds like too you guys do a lot of doing, which I always am, like, that’s the way you learn doing the stuff.

 

Adeline  26:18

Yeah. I think BioMed is definitely about opportunities. We’re big solving. We don’t have our own student attributes, which are basically just, yep, they’re right up there a ton of different ways we can problem solve and innovate and just the things, yeah,

 

Taylor  26:34

the things that our schools stand for. So I don’t know if Mr. Hileman or Ms Lang talked about it, but the six student attributes are personal, agency, innovation and problem solving, engaged learning, collaboration and leadership, sense of community and effective communication. We’re taught these things every single day. We have had projects where every class comes together and we do one big group project. Oh, wow. So it really, it really teaches everybody a little bit everything.

 

Adeline  27:04

And it’s great too, because it might sound confusing at first, but even with new students, like like Taylor I you’re able to learn so quickly and just it’s not it can be confusing at first, but you’re able to build off of what they’re giving you. Like I said BioMed, about opportunities, it’s about just going out there and problem solving and collaborating and doing all these things, like what Taylor just said about our attributes, that’s, it’s just a really good way of integration and learning.

 

Taylor  27:31

It’s a lot of real life skills that you’re going to use every single day,

 

Adeline  27:35

very hands on.

 

Kara  27:36

Yeah, I was going to say you guys seem like you’re very lucky, whether you know it or not. Does anybody have any final thoughts, comments?

 

Adeline  27:49

If you’re one going design or just anything in general, look into it. Look at YouTube. Find tutorials and go crazy.

 

Taylor  27:55

Yeah, go for it. You can do it.

 

Rogan  27:57

And anyone who’s listening to this or watching it, whatever. If you want to get into Unreal Engine, all you have to do is download the Epic Games launcher, and then in the Epic Games launcher is real engine. And if you want to get into unity, after learning that, you can just download unity off of your browser.

 

Adeline  28:14

Yeah, it’s it might seem extremely challenging, and it will be at first, but once you if you’re determined, and you feel like doing this and you want to make something, make it.

 

Kara  28:23

Good advice. I love it. Thank you guys so much for your time. I really do appreciate you joining me.

 

Adeline, Andrew, Max, Rogan and Taylor  28:30

Thank you.

 

Max  28:30

Thank you for inviting us.

 

Adeline  28:32

Great opportunity.

 

Caryn  28:34

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope you found our discussion interesting and insightful. Don’t forget to check out the show notes on our website, where you’ll find more information about today’s guest resources we mentioned, and information on earning contact hours for listening.

 

Kara  28:49

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it with your network and check us out at for the love of edtech.org, this podcast is produced by SOITA, the Southwestern Ohio Instructional Technology Association in partnership with ThinkTV and CET, the local PBS stations in Dayton and Cincinnati. Until next time, keep exploring new ways to empower your students through tech, and we’ll catch you in the next episode you.

 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai