MORGANTOWN — Fifteen years from now, when you’re using that latest digital application you never knew you couldn’t live without, think back to Molly Gregory’s students at Mountaineer Middle School.
The way things were going Tuesday, it won’t be surprising if one of them comes up with the idea.
Gregory teaches robotics and other lofty, science-minded pursuits at the school that sits high over Morgantown on Price Street.
Tuesday was the 2018 edition of 4-H National Youth Science Day, an event staged by the organization that uses everything from agriculture to urban development to motivate young people in positive ways.
“Code Your World” was this year’s theme, and coding is what Gregory’s students were doing plenty of on this day.
It’s a home-grown theme, in fact: The WVU Extension Service created the lesson plans for this year’s event.
Coding is the high-tech equivalent of circus performer in the center ring with a lion, chair and a whip.
When you code, you’re getting an app, smartphone or website to do what you want it to.
“I’m glad I got a haircut today,” 13-year-old Jamiere Evans said, as he grinned into his computer monitor in Gregory’s class.
That’s because the eighth-grader had just spent a couple of minutes talking to two visitors with a notebook and a camera about what he was doing for the day.
His monitor was full of animated squiggles, swoops and other animation, which, in code-talk, are algorithms, recursions, heuristics, and the like.
All those elements were there, because he put (coded) them there.
And they were squiggling and swooping because he told (coded) them to.
“I just like this stuff,” he said. “I’m a gamer. I’d like to be able to get a job doing this.”
His job prospects are good, at least for now.
More than 1 million computer-related jobs will be added to U.S. employment rolls over the next four years, industry watchers say.
That includes the people who write the code. Tuesday, though, was about job recruitment, Jen Robinson-Honecker said.
It was about introducing young people to technology, she said.
Robinson-Honecker does that every day in her job.
She’s a 4-H STEM specialist — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — for the Extension Service.
With artificial intelligence, robotics and other hyper-smart technologies upon the land, it never hurts to have some working knowledge, she said.
“The more comfortable these kids get with the technology and the coding, the more successful they’ll be later on,” she said.
“I’m ready,” said Jamiere, the budding captain of code.
Well, almost.
When the class dismissed and he headed for the door for his next one, he was halted by his teacher.
“Forgot your pencil,” Gregory said.
Some technology, as it turns out, doesn’t change.
Tweet @DominionPostWV. Email jbissett@dominionpost.com.
