SACO — Students from Saco Middle School are using their computer skills to teach students in grades kindergarten through third at Young School.

On Wednesday, the middle schoolers spent the day teaching second-graders basic computer programming through a “Star Wars”- themed tutorial from the non-profit website code.org. They will be back to teach the other grade levels as well.

The program was a collaboration of Young School librarians and computer teachers Brandi Fearon and Nancy Hopkins, and Saco Middle School librarian and computer teacher Jen Bishop.

Bishop said learning computer coding teaches students an important realworld skill, noting President Obama’s mention of coding in his recent State of the Union address.

“This has been a really great day,” Hopkins said Wednesday. “The kids have been so engaged.”

Saco Middle School eighth-grader Braeden Blow and seventh-grader Brendan Stephens were among the middle-school students teaching coding skills to second graders on Wednesday. Both said they enjoyed coding and teaching it to the younger children.

“Just teaching them how to code and watching them learn makes it worth it,” said Blow.

Stephens showed secondgrader Henry Dufour the steps to make a droid move around the screen to collect scrap metal.

“If you were coding a game, that’s what you’d be doing,” said Stephens. “Isn’t that cool?”

Dufour nodded, his focus still on the screen. “That’s really fun,” he said.

In addition to teaching younger children how to code, the exercise may also inspire some of the older students to become teachers, Fearon said.

“I haven’t had to talk to a soul about behavior and expectations. Everyone is so focused,” said Fearon.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].