ST. MARTINS, Mo. - Behind the increasingly life-like graphics of video games or the far-reaching information clearinghouse at Google is computer code.
Students at St. Martins Catholic School have the chance this summer to not only view the behind-the-scenes coding that goes into their technological world, but they've also been able to write a little.
The first-time Jaguar Technology Summer Camp has drawn 15 students, mostly from St. Martins but a couple from the surrounding area, too.
This camp was one of two "wishlist" items School Technologist Valerie Jackson gave to first-year Principal Eddie Mulholland at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year. (The other was seating so all students faced the same direction.)
Jackson has been developing the half-day, two-week curriculum for months. When students like seventh-grader Paige Fairchild and sixth-grader Dylan Hutschcraft found out about it this spring, they were quick to sign up.
"We're doing stuff we didn't do in school," Hutschcraft said. "I want to learn more."
During the school year, Jackson's technology classes offer glimpses of programs and uses. For the older grades, they get keyboarding as well.
This camp allows them to explore the opportunities and responsibilities of technology in more detail.
Of high emphasis in all of Jackson's lessons is to be a quality digital citizen.
For starters, she reinforces proper communication - using an introduction, punctuation and grammar, and a closing in online remarks. And before anything is posted, the students should consider what is being said and that it cannot be removed later.
"It's what you think would be common sense," Jackson said.
In the physical world, students are instructed to look both ways before crossing the street or not to take candy from strangers. Similarly, in the virtual world, students are given rules such as not talking to people they don't know or being aware of where they go online.
Jackson used Twitter as a safety lesson. She had intended to have her students create accounts and communicate through the program until they discovered a phone number must be provided.
"Tweeting was an epic fail," she said. "But I told them it was not a failure because we learned from it and can look for other solutions."
Instead, the technology camp has been blogging and replying about their lessons.
Certified to teach English, Jackson has taught technology all of her five years at St. Martins. Although she enjoyed technology classes and earned certification in e-MINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies), the ever-changing technological world keeps her on her toes.
"Technology keeps evolving," she said. "To have them truly be the digital citizens that they are, I have to keep up."
That's how she came across the technology camp idea, a blog called "Ask the Tech Teacher" by Jacqui Murray.
One of the highlights this week has been the West Point Bridge Designer software.
Fairchild said she liked the challenge of building a virtual bridge, meeting both engineering and budgetary requirements.
Parent presenters have made the camp lessons relevant, talking about graphic designing, coding, robotics and automation.
The culmination of the two weeks will include occupational investigation field trips, including publishing, law enforcement, food service and banking.
Jackson recommends other schools consider offering such an enrichment camp.
"The kids are interested in it because this is their world," she said. "I hope they will encourage children to explore technology. With guidelines to follow, it can be a wonderful tool for all of us to use."