MURFREESBORO, Tenn. —
While other high school students lounged by the pool, soaked up some sun or
rested for the upcoming school year, Kira Boles of Oakland High School in
Murfreesboro learned how to make raspberry pi. But it's not the dessert people
know and love.
In late June, Boles and other high schoolers were using
their skills in computer science and engineering to code video games in a
Kirksey Old Main computer classroom.
It was the university's first year hosting a summer camp
that involves game programming with Raspberry Pis, tiny and affordable
high-performance computers to promote the teaching of basic computer science in
schools.
MTSU Coding Camp encourages boys and girls who have an
interest in computer science to receive hands-on experience from MTSU faculty
and staff.
Each attendee learned how to assemble a Raspberry Pi, which
is a microcomputer that operates all the functions of the gaming systems they
were creating.
Since 2014, Boles has coded thanks to her mom signing her up
at a young age for coding experiences. For as long as she can remember, the art
of coding has stuck with her.
"I really enjoy it so I continued to do it throughout
the years. Now I'd like to do something with it in college," Boles said.
The rising senior added that engineering runs in her family,
but she sees herself going in a different direction.
"I want to do cyber security. I really want to protect
people against cyber threats and cyber attacks," Boles explained.
Although that is what she sees herself doing in the future,
first-time camper Boles mentioned being able to discover and play with the
technology the program provides is nothing short of amazing.
"I love that we can make our own games. That’s my
favorite thing," Boles added. "I've been into making games, but I
wasn't completely sure if that's what I wanted to do. Now it's something I'd
like to do on the side."
MTSU has held coding camps for three years, offering
students the opportunity of learning how to code on several different platforms
including HyperText Markup Language, or HTML, the standard language to create Web
pages; Scratch, a free programming language and online community where
participants can create their own interactive stories, games and animations and
now a gaming software that creates similar functions to the game Asteroids.
"I've always been interested in coding. I just didn't know where
to start," said David Bystrom, a Blackman High School student.
First-time camp instructor Neal McClain, director of library
technology in the James E. Walker Library, led the camp with the assistance
from Department of Computer Science Chair Chrisila Pettey.
"They get to keep their Raspberry Pi," McClain said.
"The idea is that they learn some basic programming skills and get some
exposure to a field they may or may not find themselves interested in down the
road. A lot of these high school students are interested in video games."
Organizers of the camp, which is sponsored by the Rutherford Chamber
of Commerce, highly recommend high school students with an interest in computer
science apply next year.
For more information about the camp, call Pettey at 615-898-2397 or
email her at Chrisila.Pettey@mtsu.edu.
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