Several of our Cherokee Creek boys had the opportunity to visit Clemson University’s Digital Media Lab last week at the invitation of Drs. Ryan Visser and Matthew Boyer. There, they had the opportunity to try out the audio lab to compose a song, laying down individual instrumental tracks. Clemson student Emerson taught them that three notes do not necessarily a chord make!

The boys also had the opportunity try out a 3-D printer which printed out half of a plastic car – then, had a troubleshooting lesson on why the other half didn’t print out.  (Answer: There was nothing to support the second set of tires given the fact it was printing the car laying on its side.) However, the unfinished project provided an interesting cross section to show exactly how 3D printing works.

Finally, the boys had the opportunity to learn Kodu, a visual code-writing program that is actually available for free at www.kodugamelab.com. This program allows users to learn the basics of game creation while learning simple code language and linear thought processes. It was amazing to see the different landscapes, characters and actions that could come from a basic green square starting field. The boys were very creative and diverse with their ideas for game creations.