Geek camp for girls more than fun and games

By Gertha Coffee

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Eleven-year-old Mia Manning wants to take a computer apart and rebuild it.

"I want to learn how to disable a computer and put it back together," said Mia, who will be in sixth grade at Peachtree Middle School in DeKalb this fall. "I also want to learn how to take good photos, edit them and make them really cool. I want to learn how to edit commercial video and just have fun."

Welcome to Geek Squad Summer Academy, where some 200 girls from metro Atlanta middle schools are getting hands-on experience in technology. They'll rotate through seven classes a day at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta,  including digital photography and video, PC and MAC basics, Internet communication and other activities -- such as dancing -- with the aid of technology, of course.

Classes are taught by volunteers such as Geek Squad agents (right, the Best Buy tech geniuses you call when you've got a problem you can't solve).

In Atlanta, the Geek Squad teamed up with Girl Scouts of America to offer a three-day program to middle school girls. The program began Tuesday and runs through Thursday at SPSU. Noisy fun is encouraged.

"We like to keep the students engaged," said Peter Donohue, Geek Squad field lieutenant. "As long as they're having fun, they don't know they're learning."

Geek summer academy was started in 2007 with just one camp in Chicago, to help expose students to careers in technology. This year, 32 camps are being held nationwide. While some camps are girls-only, others are coed to help with the socio-economic gap in technology careers, said project coordinator Patrick Pena.

"Lots of kids are familiar with computers, but it's just the box itself," Pena said. Geek Summer Academy "is about making technology not scary and giving kids an interest in technology that they otherwise would not pursue."

Similarly, a Summer Engineering Institute is in its final week at Georgia Tech's College of Engineering. The school partnered with Leadership Education and Development to offer a three-week residency program, with a focus on under-represented minority rising 11th and 12th graders.

Students were taught some basic engineering and computer science techniques, and asked to solve engineering problems with hands-on experience. Students have worked on projects such as water-quality testing and water filtration.

But learning moves fast at the Geek camps.

Day 1 is a foundation day, all about the basics. Day 2, gets into the nitty-gritty, such as taking apart and rebuilding a computer, and Day 3 includes a race to see which team can build a functioning computer the fastest. The time to beat so far is 3 minutes, 46 seconds.

Participants build in pairs, which allows them "to learn not only how to build a computer, but also how to work in teams," Donohue said.

Program content changes yearly because there are a lot of repeat participants, he said. Last year, for example, there was a communications class, Web class and Internet communications class, which are all combined into an Internet safety class this year.

Another example, last year instructors related building a PC to a human body, but this year the instructors liken it to cooks in a kitchen.

The Atlanta camp cost $35 for registered Girls Scouts and $47 for non-registered girls. Best Buy finances the camps, but all money charged goes back into the nonprofit, to help pay for food and facility fees for the week, Donohue said.

For Jalyn Riddle, 11, who will be in sixth grade at Sandtown Middle School in Atlanta next year, the camp is a good experience.

"It will help me through middle school," Jalyn said. "I'm not very technical with computers, but now I think I'll be more advanced when I get there."

And, she added, "hanging out with her Girl Scout troop and friends" is also fun.