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SALT LAKE CITY — A teenage boy gently set his group's robot on the neon yellow tape in the middle of the room, hoping the robot would follow the sequence of commands his group programmed for it moments earlier.
Slowly but surely, the robot executed the commands as scheduled and successfully traveled across the room, while diligently following the jagged path of tape, causing the boys to smile with pride at the finish.
Kids ages nine through 13 gathered at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum Thursday to participate in the Geek Squad Summer Academy — a Best Buy outreach program working in conjunction with Junior Achievement of Utah.
"Our goal is to provide inspiration towards fields in technology for boys and girls," said Dan Dolar, a field lieutenant for Geek Squad Summer Academy.
The program has existed for nine years and visits nearly 30 cities a year, in various locations across the nation. This is the fourth consecutive year that the program has made a stop in Salt Lake City.
Our goal is to provide inspiration towards fields in technology for boys and girls.
–Dan Dolar, field lieutenant for Geek Squad Summer Academy
At the onset of the 2015 academy, students were placed into five similar-sized groups, separated by gender, so they could rotate through a variety of classes at the academy over the course of two days, including: 3-D Printing and CAD Design, Programming and Robotics, Circuits and Logic, Digital Citizenship, Digital Music, and Film Production and Editing.
"There have been a lot of new things, like the 3-D printer," said returning student Sumner Bell, a 13-year-old from Salt Lake City. "I've really loved watching that, because it is one of the newest pieces of technology today and it's really interesting to actually see one in real life."
Although the 3-D printer is the most state-of-the-art feature of the academy and students get to print their own key chain using the machine, what participants consider to be their favorite class varies depending on whom you ask.
"My favorite part is probably Digital Music. I like it because I like to play the piano and sing," said Cordelia Naegle, 11, from Syracuse, who missed school for two days so she could attend the academy.
An essential part of the program is not only showing students the ropes of technology, but honing the thought processes revolving around technology since the field is always changing.
Ravell Call/Deseret News
Some jobs that exist today won't exist in the future, and jobs that don't exist today will appear when the participants of the academy reach the job market, Dolar explained.
As a result, honing thought processes not only keeps participants engaged, but it also benefits the students with their future roles in technology, which are unpredictable.
"Obviously, at this age they are not going to get career knowledge, but if we can get them interested in technology, we will keep them in school and hopefully get more kids into our job market from the STEM fields," said Becky Harding, vice president of communications at Junior Achievement.
Since the students have a long path before reaching their careers, many participants have only a vague idea of what they want to be when they grow-up — or are appropriately more concerned about what today holds.
"I'm really interested in technology and engineering, especially robotics. I might go into some field with mechanical stuff or computers," said Sumner.
Cordelia, on the other hand, wants to be an actress or engineer.
"I want to be a, wait, what is it again? Let me go ask my grandma," said Seth Lefler, 10, from Draper, who scampered away from the circuit class briefly to be reminded of his potential career as a structural engineer.
The next stop for the Geek Squad Summer Academy is Bellevue, Washington, but Junior Achievement hopes to partner and hold the program again in Salt Lake City in 2016.
Cassidy Hansen is currently studying both Political Science and Communications at Brigham Young University, while working as an intern at the Deseret News. Contact her at chansen@deseretnews.com
