A new education program seeks to help local students thrive in the age of technology.
Live Oak Academy, at 1010 Pennsylvania Ave., in McDonough, is offering month-long courses, twice a week for eight weeks. The next session of the STEM-based program is scheduled for September 3 from 5-7 p.m., at Queen Bee Coffee, 58 Griffin St., in McDonough.
Classes will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
STEM is an acronym for “science, technology, engineering and mathematics.” Dane Hildreth, Live Oak’s director of education and curator of curriculum, said it is designed to bring quality STEM education to students in middle school and high school.
“In these courses, students learn how to program through the medium of Game Design, re-creating the classic games Pong, Breakout, and Asteroids from scratch using Javascript, HTML, and CSS,” said Hildreth.
“Those three language are what anything you see in your browser is created with. If anyone knows those three languages, it greatly increases their job prospects due to the fact that there are so many open and vacant programming jobs that require those skill sets.”
The cost of the month-long program is $200 per student. Hildreth indicated that the fee is a bargain when considering everything that comes with it.
“That comes out to about $12.50 an hour for intense stem-related education,” he said.
The academy opened in June and launched its pilot program the following month with approximately 10 students. Hildreth, who teaches all courses at the academy, said enrollment is capped at 14 participants per eight-week session, in order to preserve a small student-teacher ratio.
“As the director of the curriculum, it’s most beneficial for me to see how students interact with the curriculum and learn firsthand,” said Hildreth. “It then allows me to see what students understand and what they struggle with.”
Hildreth has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Georgia. He previously worked as a lead software engineer at UGA’s Center for Teaching and Learning, and taught programming courses in the Clarke County school system.
After graduation, Hildreth worked as a software engineer for Digication, a silicon-based company that specializes in ePortfolio design and other eLearning tools. He remained there for a year and a half before embarking on his dream to start a STEM program in McDonough.
“The primary goal is to educate students with an emphasis on building a curriculum with public and private schools,” said Hildreth. “We’ve got lots of excitement from the community, and I just hope people are able to take advantage of it. Our desire is to someday make it available for the collegiate level.”
Hildreth’s older brother, Kemble, is the chief executive officer of Big Southern Software and chairman of the board of advisors for Live Oak Academy. Dane Hildreth lauded Kemble’s contributions toward making the academy a reality.
“He’s done so much for this, and he’s an amazing asset for this county,” said Dane Hildreth. He added that they want the area to “attain its full potential as an innovative and creative powerhouse.” For more information, call 770-262-0837 or visit https://liveoak.academy/.
