At new afterschool program, kids play smart
Daniel Stoller
Issue date: 1/14/08 Section: Campus Life
At Bootstrap afterschool sessions, Northeastern students teach local middle schoolers with unlikely tools: videogames.
"What these kids are doing is serious stuff," said Jennifer Wong, a senior development officer for Northeastern's College of Computer Information and Science (CCIS).
"When you see 10 and 11 year-olds making video games and talking about X and Y [coordinates], it's a great experience," she said.
Wong's job is to oversee the long-term sustainability of Bootstrap, a new educational initiative to introduce students at some schools in Boston to computer programming.
Videogames are just part of the project.
Bootstrap takes some cues from Teach Scheme!, a national computer programming initiative founded by Northeastern professor Matthias Felleisen, and teams up student volunteers with local kids to conquer complicated subjects with creativity.
Adapted from Teach Scheme! by Northeastern Program Director Emmanuel Schanzer, the program offers a 10-week afterschool activity group, which meets once a week for a couple of hours; and a weeklong, eight-hour summer camp, with open enrollment for middle and high school students in Boston.
The afterschool program, aimed at sixth, seventh and eighth graders, runs in conjunction with Citizen Schools, a nonprofit organization providing programming for Boston's middle schoolers.
The program began its experimental phase late last school year, and recently received a $150,000 grant from Microsoft. Administrators plan to use the money to expand its reach beyond the Boston area, Wong said.
"Right now, we are in seven sites in the Boston area," Wong said. "We are looking to roll out to Texas and California, based on where there are Citizen Schools."
After each session, the students present what they've made, like videogames - the culmination of their computer programming and math learning.
Computer science students proficient in Scheme, the programming language Bootstrap pupils use to create their videogames, are eligible to tutor.
"What these kids are doing is serious stuff," said Jennifer Wong, a senior development officer for Northeastern's College of Computer Information and Science (CCIS).
"When you see 10 and 11 year-olds making video games and talking about X and Y [coordinates], it's a great experience," she said.
Wong's job is to oversee the long-term sustainability of Bootstrap, a new educational initiative to introduce students at some schools in Boston to computer programming.
Videogames are just part of the project.
Bootstrap takes some cues from Teach Scheme!, a national computer programming initiative founded by Northeastern professor Matthias Felleisen, and teams up student volunteers with local kids to conquer complicated subjects with creativity.
Adapted from Teach Scheme! by Northeastern Program Director Emmanuel Schanzer, the program offers a 10-week afterschool activity group, which meets once a week for a couple of hours; and a weeklong, eight-hour summer camp, with open enrollment for middle and high school students in Boston.
The afterschool program, aimed at sixth, seventh and eighth graders, runs in conjunction with Citizen Schools, a nonprofit organization providing programming for Boston's middle schoolers.
The program began its experimental phase late last school year, and recently received a $150,000 grant from Microsoft. Administrators plan to use the money to expand its reach beyond the Boston area, Wong said.
"Right now, we are in seven sites in the Boston area," Wong said. "We are looking to roll out to Texas and California, based on where there are Citizen Schools."
After each session, the students present what they've made, like videogames - the culmination of their computer programming and math learning.
Computer science students proficient in Scheme, the programming language Bootstrap pupils use to create their videogames, are eligible to tutor.
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