Submitted Photo Gathering for a group photo of students enrolled in the summer coding camp are (front row, from left): Charles Dominics, Yasmyne Yokom, Brady Helmer, Brady Crawford; (back row): instructors Denise Joy and Gregory Cole, Rosemary Gugino, Sophia Pagan, Gracia Dominics, Fayth Wilmore and Elizabeth Joy.

The State University of New York at Fredonia Department of Computer and Information Sciences hosted a two-week computer coding camp in July for 15 students from local middle schools in Forestville, Fredonia and Silver Creek.

During the first week, the campers learned how to write mobile apps for their smartphones and tablet computers using MIT AppInventor programming code. The second week, the campers used the Carnegie-Mellon Alice programming language to create and animate objects and characters.

Adjunct Lecturer Gregory Cole taught the mobile app lessons and Adjunct Lecturer Denise Joy taught the multimedia coding lessons.

The camp was funded by the university through a grant to Mr. Cole from its Strategic Enrollment Initiative. In addition to camp activities, the youngsters received a campus tour. The camp was free for the students.

Earlier in the year, Mr. Cole met with school administrators including Joe Reyda from Fredonia, Renee Garrett from Forestville and Michelle Helmer from Silver Creek about creating a STEM-oriented summer camp. They settled on coding as a focus for the two weeks, and advertised the camp in their districts.

For more information about coding opportunities, contact the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at 673-4820.