With everything from wristwatches to refrigerators containing a microchip these days, computer technology is playing a growing omnipresent role in nearly every facet of the average American family.

While most high schools and colleges offer courses in computer programming or electronic manufacturing to students, those at an earlier stage of their development are often left in the dark into the process that empowers so much of their daily lives.

The members of the Dowagiac Middle School’s Middle Makers club have spent this past school year learning the ins-and-outs of the digital landscape.

Meeting nearly Friday afterschool, the over dozen sixth, seventh and eight grade students comprising the new student organization have learned more about the intersection of science and technology, be it learning to code on the computer or through building their own model rockets to blast into the skies above the school.

The club was founded in the fall by middle school Principal Matt Severin in order to pass own his own passion for technology to his students. The principal’s experience building his own tricopter, a remote controlled aerial device, served as inspiration for him to start his own club to teach others about robotics.

“I’ve become a tinkerer myself in recent years,” Severin said. “That’s what I want to inspire with these guys here, to tinker and build things of
their own.”

Using grant money donated to the club by the Dowagiac Union Schools Foundation, Severin was able to purchase several devices for the club to use, such as PICAXE chipsets, which have tiny bulbs that light up or change color depending on the code written by each student, and a 3D printer, which allows students to create their own plastic models based on designs they created on the computer.

Many students joined the club within the first few weeks it was started, including sixth-grade student Elizabeth Beltron.

“I thought it would be a good thing to learn more technology,” she said. “It’s been really exciting so far. You learn a lot of new things.”

Among the most exciting projects the members have worked on is the creation of model rockets, which they built from scratch. The club launched a few of these rockets outside the school last week.

“It was kind of a challenge,” said sixth-grade member Justin Townsend. “It was the most difficult thing we’ve done, but it was fun.”