| Eighth grade whiz kid joins 4kids team This month we're featuring the newest member of the 4kids team: an eighth grade programmer hired to work on the award-winning www.4kids.org Web site! By Melissa Burgos Brown SCR*TEC |
 he newest member of the 4kids team is an eighth grade programmer named
Chris. We hired him to work on the 4kids Web
site to create interactive games for the Fun
Stuff section of the 4kids site. Bet you're wondering how an eighth
grader got a programming job at such a young age! We decided to interview
Chris and find out! |
 hris's interest in computers began when he started playing video games
as a child. Since playing video games was so much fun, he thought it would
be interesting to learn about how the games were made. "It seemed like a
alot of fun to do computer programming because I could [learn to] make interactive
games that people could have fun with," said Chris. |
|
 t the age of nine,
Chris decided to start learning about programming. His dad bought him a
computer that had a program and some tutorials on it. He decided to start
playing around with it to see what he could do. One of the first programming
languages he learned was BASIC. Using BASIC, he was able to make some word
games, but the games had no graphics. Wanting to learn more, he joined a Web Design class at his school. Although he wasn't too familiar with the Internet back then, he decided to take the course. That's where he learned about Javascript which is used with HTML to create interactive Web pages. After learning about it in class, he went out and bought a book to learn more about it.
|
| |
 aining this new
knowledge really helped Chris, "Javascript was kind of a breakthrough for
me because you could add graphics and that made it easier to make games.
There wasn't a book that said 'this is how you make a game,' so I just had
to figure it out." Although much of his work is stored on his computer at home, he does have one of his games online. It's a game designed to test your memory skills. Click here to play Chris's memory game! |
| long with his after-school
job with 4kids, Chris is involved in some other technology-related activities
at school. Chris is a Generation www.Y
[pronounced "Gen Y"] student. Gen www.Y is a federally funded project designed
to involve students in a collaborative technology project with a teacher.
Students in grades 6-12 complete an 18-week course designed to teach them
the necessary skills to mentor and support teachers in the use of technology
in the classroom. The final project involves creating a technology-infused
lesson plan that the teacher can use in class.
|
| hris
is currently working on a Gen www.Y project with a math teacher at his school.
The math department has calculators that students are required to use for
specific projects in class. The manual that the calculators come with is
a little confusing, however. That's where Chris comes in. His Gen www.Y
project consists of figuring out how to use the calculators and then create
a new manual that's easier for students to understand. He and his teacher
are hoping to publish the new manual to be used and distributed throughout
the school. |
 n addition to Gen www.Y,
Chris says his technology skills also help him in other classes. He usually
gets positive feedback from teachers for using technology to put a creative
twist on his class projects. Although he's still got a long time to decide,
we asked Chris if the's thought about future career plans. He said, "I'm
not really specific yet. I know that I want it to be closely related to
computer programming. I know I would like to teach some programming classes
as well as work for a company." He's definately right on track to achieve
those goals!
|
|
