(From Springfield Public Schools)
Hickory Hills eighth-grader Cara Taylor had one goal: to make a humanoid robot do the dab.
"Now, put the robot in a position where its arms are doing the dab," said Robert Stokes, owner/president of Stokes Educational Services. "We're going to program the robot's movements, one step at a time."
Nearly 200 SPS middle schoolers attended the Computer Science Inspires Springfield 2018 Conference, held on the Ozarks Technical Community College campus and sponsored by Mid-America Technology Alliance.
Students had the ability to learn about the basics of computer science, code a basic software program from start to finish and develop problem solving skills while using programming to solve problems.
The all-day conference provided participating students interested in computer science to also explore careers available in the computer science field in the Springfield community, introducing middle schoolers to potential employers and jobs, says Maxcy Dimmick, math and technology teacher at Jarrett Middle School.
"My two goals for the conference from the beginning were to show students that computer science is fun and to show students that there are lots of opportunities in computer science, right here in Springfield," said Dimmick. "I think there has been a real surge in the interest in computer science with middle schoolers, locally, nationally and internationally, with Hour of Code and a lot more platforms being able for students to be able to code. I consider our conference just adds to the momentum for the kids, so that they stay interested."
The third annual conference was initially developed by Dimmick, with support from Jarrett Middle School principal Rob Kroll. The first year, 80 students participated, with the following around 95. Both conferences were funded by a back-to-school grant from the Foundation for Springfield Public Schools. But with an additional $5,000 provided by a High Impact Imagine Grant, the conference was able to expand, with 175 students learning about computer science with hands-on experiences, facilitated by local experts.
Jarrett seventh-grader Daniel Cox was selected to attend the conference by Dimmick because of his interest in robotics and programming. And before lunch, he already had a hands-on experience programming a robot.
"I like coding and robots and just tinkering with stuff, so I thought it would be good to be here and be at the career fair and see what all they do with that," said Daniel. "It was really fun to see how they coded the humanoid robot and see how they coded it, and I found out something new about the coding that I didn't see when watching a video about it on YouTube at school. I want to work with robotic prosthetics; I like robots and helping people, so that's what I want to do."
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