Lounsberry Hollow starts coding, grahic design clubs
VERNON — In an effort to educate “where the students are” according Dr. Charles McKay, principal at Lounsberry Hollow, there has been a push to embrace coding and graphic design at the fifth- and sixth-grade level.
To that end, the school has created two after-school experiences for the students that have become wildly popular: the Coding Club and the Graphic Design Club, both of which take place in a new state-of-the-art computer lab.
“I call them ‘experiences’ because we have had such an overwhelming response to both clubs," McKay said. "It seems that our students are extremely interested in non-traditional after school activities that can lead to exciting futures. You should see this place in the afternoon ... with our robust art program and our amazing music program and our young entrepreneurs club, TREP$, we are averaging as many as 200 students after school on the three days we have busses for them ... Remarkably that is closing in on 35 percent of our population staying after school to learn more.”
The Graphic Design Club recently for the first time and 67 students signed up for 35 spots.
"Mr. DiMauro and I were thrilled to see so many interested students who want to participate in this Graphic Design Club," said Mrs. Turner the new librarian and Graphic Design Club founder.
Chris DiMauro, a new aide in the building, who is a graphic designer by trade, is helping with the club and the hope is that the children will not only learn the tools of the computerized trade but that they will be able to produce design logos for the school as well as posters and professional material.
DiMauro showed the children some of his earlier work and the students were quite taken by the complexity of the art.
“It is great to see the enthusiasm for the field, it is a lot of fun working with the kids,” DiMauro said.
The Coding Club, which has been in place for a month, was for McKay the first sign that meeting the children where they learn was optimum.
“We set up the Coding Club in a 21st-century computer lab, brought in the AP Computer Science teacher from the high school and because of the popularity of the club we had to close it almost immediately," McKay said. "We have on average 47 students showing up every Thursday to learn coding from someone who is quite frankly an expert in the field.”
That expert is Aaron Kiedes, a teacher at Vernon Township High School.
Kiedes has been excited about the response and eager to work on a volunteer basis with the fifth- and sixth-graders.
“Coding is all around us," he said. "It is what makes it possible for us to create software, applications, websites and so much more. The browser you use, the apps you buy, and Facebook and every website you click on are all created by programmers.”