Students can learn coding and 3-D modeling at a camp offered at the Carson City Library during spring break.
Sixth- through eighth-graders can attend the Tuesday camp while a camp for fourth- and fifth-graders will be held Thursday. Both camps will run 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Digitorium. Breakfast and lunch will be provided both days.
The camps curriculum is available through NCLab, which engages students in self-paced coursework combined with creative activities. Each camp includes physical activities, games and tournaments.
As part of the coding instruction, students will learn programming language to write and execute code that controls digital technology, explained Aubrey White, assistant youth librarian.
“3-D modeling is learning how to create digital objects that could, in theory, be printed out and used in the real world,” he said.
The skills learned in the one-day camps will serve as a base for students to understand the principles that will be expounded upon during additional camps over the summer.
They are skills, White said, today’s youth will need as they progress in their education and enter the workforce.
“Computers are not going away,” White said. “More and more, the level of skill a student has is going to impact them not only in the future but right now in school.”
Even students who have no interest in technology will benefit from the camp.
“Computer coding teaches problem-solving and it develops the ability to fail,” he said. “They learn how to use trial and error. If something doesn’t work, you just keep trying and you figure it out.”
He pointed to his own career as a librarian with a major in English where computer knowledge is a necessity.
“I don’t think we really know how omnipresent this is going to be no matter what field you go into,” White said.
For more information or to sign up for the camp, go to carsoncitylibrary.org. For more information about the camps or software, go to nclab.com.
