Wednesday, March 28, 2001
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Wednesday, March 28, 2001 |
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Middle schooler creates software to help teachers Move over Bill Gates, a new software developer from J.C. Booth Middle School might be entering the computer scene in just a few years to give you a run for your money. Seventh-grade computer whiz Roger Pincombe has just finished developing a new software program to help reading teachers at the school easily and conveniently deliver curriculum outlined in the school's SAT vocabulary program. SAT Words Helper enables teachers to present the SAT words for the day and their meanings on television sets in the classrooms. Teachers simply type the words and definitions into the program and then with a click of the mouse, they can send it to the classroom television for viewing. The program can hold up to 200 words. Before Pincombe developed the software program, teachers were using PowerPoint to help teach SAT vocabulary. This method had a couple of drawbacks: it was time consuming for already busy teachers and students who were absent had no convenient way of catching up on missed words. With the new program, not only can absent students easily catch up, but they can also stay ahead of the curriculum by viewing the words ahead of time. "If a student knows he is going to be out on a certain day, then he can view the words that are going to be covered on that day so that he doesn't get behind," says Pincombe. Not only does the software help students stay up-to-date on their vocabulary words, but they can also utilize the program to search for specific words and review previous words as well as quiz themselves through a matching game. "You simply select the words you want to review and the computer puts them up on one side of the screen along with the definitions on the other side. You match the definitions to the words and then the computer will tell you if your matches are correct," Pincombe explains. If a match is incorrect, the computer identifies which ones are wrong so that the student can revise his or her answers. Once all the answers are correct, a message appears on the screen congratulating the student. Pincombe says his next version of the software will enable students to keep score while playing the game. The development of SAT Words Helper stemmed from a comment made by Booth reading teacher Kathy Smith. "I had stated in class one day that I wished someone would come up with a way to make presenting the curriculum more easy and less time-consuming," said Smith. "Roger said he would work on it, but I had no idea about his background or that he would actually come up with something." Pincombe has been working with computers since he was two years old. He began learning various programming languages when he was seven and has just recently completed training in Visual Basic. He owns his own company called The Roger Database. Services offered include web site creation, custom software design, computer games and general computing help and troubleshooting. It took Pincombe about six weeks and 36 pages of code to develop SAT Words Helper. He has already created version two of the program and is making plans to develop version three. "Roger is a very intelligent young man. I won't be surprised if we hear about him becoming a multi-billionaire someday," says Lyn Wenzel, principal of Booth Middle. Roger says he does hope to become rich someday through his work with software development and computers. He is planning a career as a computer programmer although he said he would also enjoy working as a video game programmer.
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