Round Lake students design beats, houses and websites at free technology camp

Around 50 Round Lake Area Unit District 116 students used computers to compose music, design houses and even boss around robots on Wednesday at the first of a free two-day technology academy put on by Best Buy's Geek Squad.

The students, ages 10 and older, were sorted into groups and went from room to room at Round Lake Middle School to learn new computer and tech skills.

In one classroom, they put on wireless Beats headphones and learned to use Garage Band, a free music creation program. In another, they used the free program Google Sketch Up to design little houses.

The goal of the camp is to inspire teens to pursue 21st-century jobs, according to Greg Dinert. Dinert works for Geek Squad and traveled from Florida to organize the Round Lake academy. Dinert said Geek Squad started hosting the events in 2007, and plans to have 50 at schools nationwide this year.

In Round Lake this week, each station has a goal for the students to accomplish, whether it's learning to be safe online or designing a Web page.

By the end of the day Thursday, the students in the robotics room will have learned enough coding to be able to program a little version of the BB-8 robot from the "Star Wars" movies to navigate a maze.

"They end up learning the process step-by-step," Dinert said as students stared intently at the code behind him. "And who doesn't love BB-8?"

And, by the time they're done in the music room, the students should all have created original songs.

"Some of these kids could go on to create a next top 40 track," Dinert said. "Some of these beats are very good."

The students' creations don't stay at the school. Dinert said they will all be given flash drives so they can take their songs home and share them with friends and family or continue to work on them.

And the houses they designed in Google Sketch Up? Those were fabricated on 3-D printers and the students got to take them home.