Middle-schoolers learn tech basics at Geek Squad Academy

About 80 area middle-schoolers are getting hands-on tech experience during Geek Squad Academy this week.

The two-day camp is designed to familiarize youths with the systems they likely will encounter in an increasingly tech-focused workforce, said Best Buy camp organizer Ricky Noriega.

“Hopefully, we can spark an interest in them,” Noriega said, “something they might grow into in the future.”

He said the need for workers in high-tech fields is growing, and students who get involved early likely will have plenty of career opportunities down the road.

Students alternated among five classes, each focusing on a different field.

Bryce Gentry, left, Jai Pryor, center, and Trenton Ordonia visit at the end of their Garage Band session on Wednesday during the Geek Squad Academy at Jackson Middle School.Laura Simon

The first dealt with 3-D design, helping students use a 3-D printer to create a small house and a table.

Another class presented students with digital-music concepts using the audio workspace GarageBand.

Other sections focused on the basics of HTML, how websites are developed and how robots process commands to function.

North Elementary principal Lance McClard said the skills gained in the camp could help students later in the classroom.

Some students, he said, already deal with similar concepts in North Elementary’s Robotics Club and S.T.E.A.M. Club.

“It’s endless,” McClard said. “There are millions of applications. ... We are moving toward making sure students are prepared for the future.”

And for the Jackson School District to host such a camp is an achievement in itself, he said.

The camps usually happen in places such as Kansas City, Missouri, or San Antonio; places where there are eight or nine Best Buy locations instead of the one in the Cape Girardeau market.

“We had just an outside shot,” McClard said of the application process.

But due in part to the efforts of Michael Seaton, who oversees area Geek Squads for Best Buy and who lives in Jackson, they convinced the company they had sufficient resources to host the camp.

And for students such as seventh-grader Mackenzie Lukefahr, their hard work was worth it.

She said she learned HTML, and said she now understands computers better.

Her classmate Emma Minton said the camp made the technology fun, and her favorite activity was a coding game.

Fellow seventh-grader Skylar Burkhart said she expects to use what she learned in her future job.

“I want to be an artist,” she said.

Best Buy camp organizer Chad Carlisle, who also helped run the camp, said that’s the point.

“We’re trying to get them to a place where they’re creators of technology,” he said, “not just consumers of technology.”

tgraef@semissourian.com

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