A new club at Caruso Middle School is giving students the chance to learn skills meant to help them design their own games and eventually develop websites.
The school’s Coding Club started this year and had 28 members as of Oct. 5, according to Tonya Wibbenmeyer, a teaching assistant and staff sponsor. She said the club is open to all students in the school.
Wibbenmeyer said she is starting club members with a program that shows them how to use shapes to craft things like games.
“Once they have an understanding of this, it should seamlessly take them into JavaScript,” Wibbenmeyer said.
Daniel Carow, another seventh grader, said he got a push to join the club from his parents.
“They said you can use it for a job you will do in the future,” Carow said. “Now, I’m having fun building a game.”
“My parents said it is a good experience because it is something important to learn,” seventh grader Jordan Ross said. “I think it will be something to help me have a good career someday in the future.”
The club is meant to get more students interested in coding beyond what they learn in their regular classes, according to Caruso Principal Brian Bullis.
“We want the students to develop a passion for coding,” Bullis said. “We want them to do it in an environment where it will be fun.”
Sixth and seventh grade students now learn how to code in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) class, which they take for a quarter of the year, according to Wibbenmeyer. She said eighth graders have the option to take STEM for one to four quarters of the year, or not at all.
Wibbenmeyer said two girls are in the club and she is reaching out to teachers and staff in hopes more will join. She’s also using herself as a role model, and said she learned coding at a previous job.
“It really helped me develop my own creativity,” Wibbenmeyer said. “They had a website, but I thought I could make it more efficient doing it myself. It worked, and they really liked the outcome.”
Ben Saarva, another seventh grader, said he already knows how to work in JavaScript but he wants to become more proficient. Connor Duvall, also a seventh grader, said he hopes to learn how to program a robot before he is done.
Seventh grader Hayden Zeiger’s goal is simple.
“I want to design a game and play it,” Zeiger said.
Steve Sadin is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
