Pennington children enjoy summer computer program

Hosted by Eva Kaplan, the camp's founder and director, and guided by Corey Wallenstein and David Pein, the workshop enabled children participating in the camp to learn how to program robotic mice to obey specific commands.

Through the guidance of the teachers, the 13 children attending the camp, ranging in age from 7 to 15 years old, learned how to program three computerized mice through a series of four challenges.

Programmed in the BASIC computer language, the mice can be commanded to interact with the "real world" by performing predetermined movements and sensing and avoiding objects. The mice are equipped with a microcontroller, which functions as a processor and memory along with a sensor device that works up to three feet and allows the small robot to take measurements of the real world and respond.

In order for these robots to function, they must be programmed on a computer, where upon the information is downloaded to them through a cable. At the workshop, the three groups of children were instructed to program the mice to perform various tasks that ranged from basic forward movement to avoiding contact with objects and turning around in the other direction. The first challenge that the children met was to simply make the mouse move and come to a complete stop. Each group was then instructed to copy two lines of code into the computer that would account for this function. The challenges then became increasingly complex and, by the third challenge, the children were programming the mice to repeat square patterns on the floor.

Eva Kaplan has been running her annual summer program for 27 years, making "Computers and Kids" one of the longest running computer programs in the nation. The program is designed to teach children a full range of tasks to keep up with the ever changing technology in society. Among other activities, the children that attend the "Computers and Kids" program design websites, program video games, go on cyber-hunts and build actual robots in addition to special demonstrations like Pein and Wallenstein's. Pein, who teaches electronics at Manalapan High School in Englishtown, NJ, is the founder of Robodyssey Systems, a company that operates out of Hamilton and specializes in building robots and teaching kids how to work with them. Wallenstein is a junior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worchester, Massachusetts, and was the workshop's teacher on the programming of the computerized mice. Eva's students are not only taught how to program graphics and sound, but they also learn how to build circuit boards from scratch, rather than a kit. "I make sure this program contains a broad spectrum of activities," says Kaplan, 'This is where I think we're heading, with more computers and more robotics in this country, it's a good thing the children are learning." Pein, Wallenstein and Kaplan all hope that the programming of robots and other valuable computer education is something that will very soon become an expected part of every school's curriculum