High school and middle school students from the Denver Public School's Computer Magnet Program will be attending camp at CU-Boulder this summer. But instead of swimming, playing football or tossing a Frisbee, they'll be shooting their own video movies, making their own digital music and burning their own CDs and DVDs.
DigitalCUrrents Summer Day Camp runs from Monday, June 9, through Friday, June 27, at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
DigitalCUrrents is a partnership between CU-Boulder's ATLAS technology program and the DPS Computer Magnet Program. Its focus is to excite Denver middle school students about technology so that they might enroll in technology courses in high school and pursue technology disciplines in college.
Computer Magnet Program students enroll in 12 classes in high school focusing on Web design, computer technician skills and software design skills.
"We're especially interested in attracting women and students who might become first-generation college students because of their low representation in the technology-fluent work force," said Lucy Sanders, CU-Boulder's executive in residence for ATLAS. "ATLAS provides a much needed bridge between information technology and communities that are less commonly partnered with technology."
During the first week of DigitalCUrrents Summer Day Camp, eight high school students will spend time on the CU-Boulder campus working with ATLAS' Technology Arts and Media students on the design of an advertising video and original musical sound track, using state-of-the-art media tools. The second week shifts to North High School in Denver, where the same students will teach 25 middle school students the project that they've just completed.
During the third week of camp, the high school students will create a recruiting video describing the camp itself, designed to attract students to the Computer Magnet Program.
According to Gary Goodnight, coordinator for CMP, "Everyone knows that teaching something is the best way to learn it. DigitalCUrrents gives high school technology students the experience of teaching in the field of their passion."
ATLAS, the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society, is CU-Boulder's campus-wide initiative that prepares students and faculty for lives and leadership careers in the networked information age.
For more information on the ATLAS initiative, contact Lucy Sanders at (303) 735-5108 or cuatlas@spot.colorado.edu.