Jefferson Middle School students to present projects in Lansing

ST. CLAIR SHORES — Four Jefferson Middle School students will present their projects in Lansing for state senators and others to view.

The students are Ethan Sypho, Addison Sails, Kayla Kolbicz and Kelsey McClelland and they’re all a part of teacher Robert Schneider’s coding and Scratch programming class.

The event is called the Student Technology Showcase at the Capitol and Schneider said in an email it will take place on Dec. 4.

“K-12 student teams representing their schools from around the state demonstrate best practices of how technology can enhance teaching and learning for the success of Michigan students,” the STS at the Capitol 2024 website states.

Each team consists of up to four students and one mentor.

All four students created websites, featuring the mini games they created during the class which can take multiple years if they take the class again. Sypho presented his website and stated they created all the games over the course of around 10 weeks. Schneider said the kids work on the projects at home and school.

“Each student here, they make their own website,” Schneider said. “And then with the website we also do coding. We do a program called Scratch where they have to design their own program from basically nothing to something they have to create a completely interactive game.”

He went on to say they use their coding tools to create things in the game such as scoring, interactive elements and much more. Schneider said he picks students who work hard and show promise for the showcase.

“All these kids here, they spend a lot of time outside of class working on these projects,” Schneider said. “I focus on paying attention to detail and a lot of these kids did that.”

Schneider said he applied to the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning, MACUL, and he’s been attending the event for 10 years on and off.

“I have to apply and then we have to get accepted,” Schneider said. “And again, we were accepted this year, so it was pretty exciting to be accepted again. I wanted to show that these kids made some really great projects.”

The students were given a set of instructions to complete the games including what type of game and others, but they had creative freedom when it came to designing the game. Schneider said as long as they were meeting the requirements of the project, they had that freedom.

The students said they had fun on the project.

Sypho said he was inspired by Roblox creating his projects.

“It’s sort of similar to it, but I have my own twist to it,” Sypho said.

Kolbicz said she had fun designing her characters. She showed her website that included smaller games, a quiz game and more.

“He had some games that you could try to make, and he had instructions so then I just did that on here and that’s what inspired me,” Kolbicz said.

Both Sails and McClelland presented their games, too, showing off their creativity in their designs.

Sails found the maze the most difficult game to complete. She said it was tricky to get the animals in the right spot and figure out all the details. Sypho found the maze game difficult as well, stating it was hard to figure out the different levels he added.

Schneider said he is very proud of the students and what they created.

“Lakeview’s always been leaders in technology, so (we are) very proud of their work,” Schneider said.