Young Techies Scratch the Surface of Video Game Design

It looked just like a scene from a college class: A teacher mapped out terms and concepts on a whiteboard before a group of students, each with his own laptop. A few offered insightful answers to questions posed to them.

However, some of these whiz kids were barely tall enough to see over their computer screens.

The students—ranging from 7 to 11 years old—delved into the world of two-dimensional game design at the Video Game Animation Camp, a four-day summer camp held late in June at the Veterans Memorial Community Center.

For two hours each day, the young students learned about technology and the use of a programming language by completing step-by-step projects.

“This is just the third day of class, and they’re already pros at where to find things and what’s the next step,” said instructor Solveig Mebust.

Matthew Beighley, an 11-year-old participant in the summer course, created an interactive animation of a dog chasing a cat, which was chasing a mouse: “I’ve made it so it’s the ultimate Tom and Jerry chase!” he exclaimed, seeing the results of his work.

“They’re using a program called Scratch,” Mebust explained. “It’s a program developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for young people just like this, to teach them programming early … and it’s free. You can tell it was developed by instructors and educators who really know how to teach this to kids.”

Independently, and together as a group, the young techies went through a booklet of projects using Scratch. Using a random number generator, they learned how to program actions for their on-screen characters—or “sprite”. Later, they learned how to change the color and size of an animated object and add actions and sound effects to the image.

But why is it important that young children learn computer programming skills?

Mebust, in her third summer instructing Computer Explorers classes and camps, said teaching children how to program software is like teaching them a new language.

“When you’re young, it’s especially nice because it gets ingrained. It’s like learning patterns," Mebust said. They can approach it from their own experiences, like with building blocks. They get the basics … then they build on it with more complex programming languages."

“As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively,” the Scratch website reads.

Computer Explorers offers more than 26 technology-themed summer camps throughout the Twin Cities area. The camps reinforce core academic skills, while teaching students "invaluable 21st Century competencies,” according to the Computer Explorers website.

“A lot of students go home and continue doing this. By then, they’ve had hours of practice,” Mebust said.

What did the students think of their technological summer camp experience, thus far?

“It’s awesome!” the students said in unison.

“I’m sad that tomorrow’s the last day, though,” summer camp participant Tommy Sobaski said.