Copper Country Coders' first ever computer science expo

These students were sitting in class on a Saturday afternoon, not because they had to, but because they actually wanted to be there.

"It's a great class I don't know of any other class like this and I would rate it five stars,” said Clay Peterson, one of the students.

Eleven-year-old Clay Peterson was one of the students among the large crowd.

Throughout the semester, he's been able to meet new people and create games through coding software, which he then presented in front of his friends and family at the first ever expo for Copper Country Coders.

This organization brings in local middle and high school students from the surrounding area to teach them about programming.

Usually, the students in the organization break into individual groups or teams to work on their assigned task throughout the semester.

But Saturday's event gives the entire organization and the community the opportunity to learn about what goes on in the field of computer science, whether its web development, game design or visual programming.

"Programming gives you a new way to think and the students have a lot of fun learning these skills and getting to actually apply them in the classroom,” said Keith Atkinson, one of the mentors for Copper Country Coders.

"Computing is such a broad skill right now, and it's so involved in our everyday life, kids need exposure to this. There aren't any classes for them where they can learn this and they need these skills in order to be able to function well in society and to take charge of their future,” said Sarah Larkin, another one of the mentors for Copper Country Coders.

After Saturday’s expo, Clay is going to go home and download a cadding and coding system on a computer and then programming so he can work at home.

In the meantime, he encourages anyone slightly interested in joining to stop by and see what it's like.

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