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<strong>June</strong> 30, <strong>2019</strong> - WESTSIDE MESSENGER - PAGE 7<br />
www.columbusmessenger.com <strong>June</strong> 30, <strong>2019</strong> - WESTSIDE MESSENGER - PAGE 7<br />
www.columbusmessenger.com<br />
In Education<br />
Summer tech program helps kids create apps<br />
By Dedra Cordle<br />
Staff Writer<br />
Like many children his age, Preston Miller loves computer<br />
and video games. He said he has learned many skills<br />
while playing on these mediums and has even decided that<br />
he wants to make a career out of it.<br />
“I plan to be a YouTube video game creator,” said the<br />
fourth grade student at Finland Elementary School.<br />
Knowing that he needed to hone the skills required to<br />
be a game creator, Miller was excited to learn that he<br />
would have the opportunity to do so at his school. The only<br />
problem was that it would take place in the summer.<br />
“I love summer break but I really wanted to do this,” he<br />
said.<br />
On <strong>June</strong> 17 at roughly 8:30 a.m., Miller found himself<br />
back in school for an all-day, week-long programming class<br />
called Techie Camp, which was made possible for students<br />
at Finland Elementary and Franklin Woods Intermediate<br />
through a grant from Battelle and Tech Corps.<br />
“Techie Camp is a hands-on program that teaches<br />
young children the basics of programming,” said Tech<br />
Corps instructor Will Sierzputowski. “For this week, along<br />
with the one that was held last week (<strong>June</strong> 10 -14 at<br />
Franklin Woods), they are learning how to make an app<br />
but with the stipulation that they make something that<br />
benefits others.”<br />
When the stipulation was announced the first day of<br />
class, Sierzputowski said there were a lot of blank stares.<br />
“I don’t know if it was because it is the summer and<br />
they’re in summer mode or if they thought they would be<br />
making cool apps right away,” said the junior at Ohio<br />
Northern University with a laugh. “Some later told me<br />
they thought they would be doing something that would<br />
make them a lot of money so I think it might have been the<br />
second option.”<br />
But with some prodding, the group of 22 budding creators<br />
brainstormed ways apps can help people, watched<br />
design and programming tutorials, and started putting<br />
their ideas to code.<br />
“I am so impressed by what they came up with,” said<br />
Tech Corps instructor Anna Dake. “There has been a lot of<br />
variety with these groups.”<br />
Olivia Reynolds, 10, she designed an app that helps<br />
people remember recipes.<br />
“If people forget, they can just pull it up and have the<br />
instructions right there,” said the Franklin Woods<br />
Intermediate student.<br />
Hector Flores co-created an app for parents to tell them<br />
the appropriate age for their children to do chores.<br />
“I mow the grass and I’m not sure I should be made to<br />
do it at my age,” said the fourth grader.<br />
Hannah West and Sophia Tope created an “ungrounding<br />
app” that counts down the exact time they are out of<br />
punishment.<br />
“Parents are always trying to tell you that you<br />
have more time in punishment,” said West.<br />
“This app will show them that it is not true<br />
because the countdown tells them the time is up,”<br />
added Tope.<br />
Miller, the future game creator, programmed an<br />
app that allows people to find games on Roblox, a<br />
popular game creation system platform.<br />
“It breaks it up by skill level too,” he said. “If<br />
they’re a beginner and want to play a game where<br />
they find eggs, the app shows them where to find it<br />
for beginning level players.”<br />
Other app creations include Fortnight quizzes,<br />
algebra flashcards, origami instructions, sports<br />
point trackers, and a once-aday<br />
reminder to do something<br />
nice for someone else.<br />
While the students said<br />
there was some difficulties<br />
learning how to program,<br />
they were given great<br />
instruction and plan to continue<br />
making apps well into<br />
the future.<br />
“It was a struggle sometimes<br />
but I had a lot of fun learning how to do this,” said<br />
Reynolds. “Eventually I would like to put something on the<br />
app store but I need to work on a few more things first<br />
before I can reach that level.”<br />
The Techie Camp that was held at Finland Elementary<br />
and Franklin Woods Intermediate marked the first time<br />
the popular camp was held in the South-Western City<br />
Schools District. It was brought to the school, in addition<br />
to the grant, due to the efforts of Kira Shade-Ray, the<br />
Finland Elementary site coordinator for Communities in<br />
Schools, and Helen Cosner, a gifted intervention specialist<br />
with the district. Shade-Ray said that while coding clubs<br />
are growing in popularity at the schools, they would love<br />
to host Techie Camp again next summer.<br />
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<strong>Messenger</strong> photo by Dedra Cordle<br />
Anna Dake, a volunteer with Tech Corps, works with Finland Elementary School students<br />
Hannah West and Sophia Tope during the final work day of a week-long Techie<br />
Camp on <strong>June</strong> 20. More than 35 children at Finland and Franklin Woods Intermediate<br />
participated in the camp that taught them programming skills to create their own apps.<br />
West and Tope made an app for parents that tells them the exact moment their children’s<br />
punishment time is up.<br />
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