By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–It’s pretty incredible how intelligent and savvy today’s youth can be when it comes to technology and computers.

While the future continues to evolve with technology, children in first through the fourth grades already have a head start as they participated in a Creation Station Summer Camp the week of June 5, at Helena Elementary School.

Both boys and girls used problem-solving skills and learned things such as movie making, computer programming robotics and more during the five-day camp offered as part of Shelby County Schools Community Education Summer Enrichment.

One of the more popular stations was the green screen and movie making station.

A large green banner was put up on the wall to simulate a green screen and students took turns standing in front of the screen. Another student would then snap a picture or record a video.

The students end goal was to make a movie using the green screen featuring U.S. Presidents.

Upcoming third grader Brodie Powell, who is a history and president buff himself, can recite every U.S. president in order and discussed how the green screen station worked.

“We are going on the green screen and getting pictures of the presidents,” Powell said. “A person holds the camera and when the background is set they press the button to take a picture and save it. We’re making a movie about the presidents.”

The other half of the creation station technology camp dealt with coding and robotics as students used a coding reference sheet to plug in codes to make a robot complete commands.

The various color codes helped the robot complete a path from one end to the other using commands.

In addition to making the robot do commands in person, a computer program was also available at the camp.

Upcoming third grader Libby Shackelford was playing coding games on the computer with a program called “Artist’s Sequence.”

“Math is one of my favorite subjects and the green screen has been my favorite and I like it because my mom helps teach the camp,” Shackelford said.

The specialty enrichment classes are offered at Calera Elementary, Helena Intermediate, Forest Oaks Elementary and Oak Mountain Intermediate.

The classes are open to students who are zoned for Shelby County Schools and may be limited to certain ages or grade spans.

For more information on enrichment classes, visit Shelbyed.k12.al.us/community/enrich.html.