BOULDER, Colo.—The Army uses them so why not a traditional school?
A University of Colorado class is using video games to teach kids 10 and older about computers.
“To me, anything that gets kids interested in science is critical,” says Fred Gluck, the class instructor. Computer simulations are used in science regularly by entities such as NASA, he says, to model how things in the natural world work.
“Learning something like that is a very sophisticated process and it’s not intuitive,” Gluck says.
It is part of the University’s Science Discovery program. It uses software called AgentSheets that enables students to create their own computer simulations and design games.
Faces are intent as computer screens flicker, and fingers tape on keyboards and click mice.
The flicker of computer screens lights the intent faces of eight students as their fingers tap keyboards and click mice.
That’s awesome,” says 10-year-old Jasper Wilsdon, smiling, after a loud buzz sounds from her computer.
The class is one of several offered by the Discovery program, including “Cool Science” and “Rockets for Junior Astronauts.”
The knowledge learned in one program carries over.
“Very quickly, kids who are interested in games want to create their own. Creation is a very human thing,” Gluck says.
“This is definitely harder than school. I like the challenge,” Wilsdon says.
His mother, Anna Stewart, says she hopes he and other students will learn skills to “save the planet” when they grow up.
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Information from: Daily Camera,
