Despite there being an increase in popularity with computer science in the last few years, SHS has seen a decrease in enrollment in these sorts of classes.
With fewer students signing up for computer science classes, Computer science teacher Mark Snodgrass decided to take inspiration from one of his class projects to attempt to solve this issue.
“Our goal is to create kits where kids, who have no skills and no abilities with technology or building stuff, can come in, put together their own car and race it … ,” Snodgrass said.
To attempt to get kids interested in computer science and engineering, Snodgrass will have students be able to make their own karts in a program called Mario Monday.
Snodgrass says that he came up with the idea because a former student, Jason Black, used to run “Smash Bros.” tournaments in his room, which brought a lot of kids to his class.
To make Mario Monday a reality, Snodgrass reached out to UIndy’s Racing Club to see if they could be of assistance in making the karts, which they agreed to. With the help of UIndy, they have been able to manufacture the overall structure of the kart with more things to be added later.
“What I’ve been doing is … cutting all the metal, welding all the metal, getting motor mounts made, creating the bearings for the wheels, the axels, steering geometry, all that stuff … ,” UIndy Racing Club President Jordan Ankney said. “Then, once the software and electrical stuff are ready to be put on, I will be assisting in putting that on.”
As of now, it’s purely just UIndy kids helping Snodgrass with this project due to their experiences and skills in things such as welding and advanced programming. However, Snodgrass says that possibly later on, he’ll take some SHS students to UIndy to help their students program.
Having gained an idea as to what this will become, both SHS and UIndy students can’t wait for this to become a reality.
“I’m super excited,” UIndy Racing Club Secretary Patrick McCafferty said. “We’ve built a few go-karts for ourselves, … and it’s been a super fun project. What we’ve done so far with Mario Monday has been awesome.”
SHS students have shown similar interest and excitement toward this project, especially the programmers Snodgrass is considering sending, such as junior Drake Phipps.
