Features: A Message from Claes Nobel Meet your new Student Council Partner News College-Bound Advice Q & A on the SAT from the College Board Choosing a College Spotlight on Service Fulfilling F.U.N. at Day Camp for the Disabled Visiting the Philippines: A Life-changing Experience Non-Sibi: "Not for Oneself": Tsunami Relief Truths about Tutoring A Super Summer: Controlled Chaos at the Library Summer Experiences Summer Alternatives: Building the Mind AND the Body Summer Dreams: Friends and Fun at the World's Fair in Japan My Summer in Medical Research ICE in Summer: Georgia Tech Institute for Computer Education Learning about Leadership: National Student Leadership Conference Summertime... and the Living is Busy: from Houston, to Harvard, to Oxford ICE in the Summer: Georgia Tech Institute for Computing Education Brittany Smith Etowah High School, Class of 2007 Woodstock, Georgia During my summer vacation I attended the Georgia Tech Summer ICE Camp--Institute for Computing Education. The experience on the college campus was exciting and informative. I learned so many new things during my session. I was given the opportunity to build a robot, make it perform certain tasks, and play instrumental songs. I also was able to experience how to build a computer from the bottom to the top. I had the opportunity to tour the campus by going on a scavenger hunt. My first day was spent meeting the students and the TA's that attended Georgia Tech. Afterwards we then picked a partner that we wanted to work with in building our robot. We selected the kit we would use for the week and began to read the directions on how to build a robot. We spent 30 to 45 minutes building the robot and then turned our kits back in until the next day. Next, we moved on to the computer lab where we used a computer program called JES. Using the program JES we began to learn how to make a collage of pictures with different features and filters. The following days were spent building more onto our robot and adding on to the collages we were making. We toured the campus and went on a two-hour scavenger hunt. We had to look for items such as famous statues, the missing "T." and the Tech mascot. We were also given the opportunity to visit many Tech interns who showed us how robots work, how music is put onto MP3 players and cell phones, and some of the new computers and other technology that will soon be making a difference in the world. The final day was the award ceremony where all of our family and friends were able to attend and see what we had accomplished during the week. We were able to show how some of our robots worked and our collages that we worked on in JES. We then took our seats to see who were finalists in the essay entries. Out of the 35 students I was chosen to be in the top 10. Next, I was chosen out of the top 10 to be in the top five. Mrs. Kris Nagel, the Media Computation Director, then called the students up to the front, and there I was selected along with another student as the semi-finalist. I was ecstatic that my essay had been selected out of the many entries. << Back to Journal Home page