Sandpoint High students visit Innovation Den
(Courtesy photo) Sandpoint High School students had the opportunity to try out augmented reality glasses with Professor Julie Beeston at University of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene extension last Friday. Other students could watch on the computer screen to see what their classmates were doing while wearing the glasses.
(Courtesy photo) Professor John Shovic at the University of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene extension talks to Sandpoint High School students about Baxter, the college’s 300-pound robot.
(Courtesy photo) Sandpoint High School students in Nan Brothers' dual-credit computer science class toured the computer science department at the University of Idaho's Coeur d'Alene extension last Friday, where they saw robotics demonstrations and more.
SANDPOINT — Not only can Baxter teach students the basics of robotics and artificial intelligence, the 300-pound robot can make them coffee as well.
Sandpoint High School students got to meet Baxter, whose home is in the Innovation Den at the University of Idaho Coeur d'Alene extension, last Friday. The students in Nan Brothers' dual-credit computer science class from SHS toured the UI computer science department where the teens saw demonstrations in robotics, 3D graphics and bipedal robots with human-like joints.
"They had a great time," Brothers said. "They were really excited about it."
In her third year of teaching the computer science class, Brothers said she has 43 students enrolled — a majority of whom attended the field trip to Coeur d'Alene. She also has 12 students enrolled online, she said. In 2015, Brothers said she started out with about 10 students. Last year it increased to 15, but this year saw a large increase in the dual-credit program.
After Alex Gray, career-technical education coordinator and SHS instructor, initially asked Brothers to teach the class, she attended a week-long professional development course at UI. While attending the course, she got the basics for the class, but there was no curriculum, she said.
In an email to the Daily Bee, Katherine Hoyer, marketing and communications for the UI extension in Coeur d'Alene, said teachers from around the state were trained to teach the dual-credit course as "sort of a jumping off point for computer science." Brothers was one of the few who qualified to teach the credit, and was also able to add it to her curriculum, Hoyer said.
"Over the past three years, I've been writing the curriculum and running it for the kids," Brothers said.
Students who choose to take the class for dual credit receive three UI college credits as well as their senior math credit. Hoyer said Brothers' students are the first from North Idaho to take advantage of the UI dual credit course.
Throughout the course of the year, Brothers said, the students learn three different programming languages, starting with "Scratch," before moving on to "NetLogo" and, finally, "Processing." The students are currently in the middle of learning "NetLogo." They are using the program to model a population.
"It has tons of different types of modeling you can do," Brothers said. "So that is what we do — we write code and make programs run, and have fun doing it."
While the group was in Coeur d'Alene, Brothers said they also went over to North Idaho College as well, where they visited Gizmo-CDA. Brothers said they learned about programming Alexa to answer its own questions.
The trip was funded through a Panhandle Alliance for Education grant for students to explore college and career options and "help students get excited about STEM opportunities," said Jeralyn Mire, SHS postsecondary counselor, who wrote the grant. A couple of private donors added to the trip as well, she said.
Giving credit where its due, Brothers said, SHS Principal Tom Albertson has been "very supportive" of the class. UI recently donated five refurbished laptops for the students to use in the class as well.
Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.