Utah is currently in an information technology renaissance. Major technology corporations are moving to Utah and providing 10s of thousands of jobs. Companies are moving to Utah because it provides a workforce that is hard working, ethical and skilled. Wayne School District wants to prepare our students to take advantage of the opportunities that the high-tech industries provide.

In June teachers from the school district offered a 4-day coding camp to students in grades 4-9. At the camp students learned basic programming by using a gaming program called Scratch (scratch.mit.edu). They also used coding to program Sphero and Lego robots. Camp started with the students giving directions for a treasure hunt. Basically, they learned how to write a set of instructions like computer code.

Each day of the coding camp the students were given a new activity. The activity consisted of writing a set of instructions in code in Scratch. The programing code was for a new game. Each day the activities increased in difficulty. In addition, during the week obstacle courses and mazes were created for the Sphero robots. The activity for the Lego robots consisted of the students programming the robots so that they could complete a picture scavenger hunt. Students were engaged and had fun learning. We want to thank Debbie James and Stephanie Williams for their efforts in teaching this camp. Also, a big thanks to Andrea Peterson for setting up that camp and helping with her technical expertise.