Youth Programs

The hack is back. UW-Platteville is set to hold the ninth annual Holiday Toy Hack on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 1-4 p.m. in the Huff Family Innovation Center in Sesquicentennial Hall. Student volunteers from all disciplines are invited attend and help adapt electronic toys so children with special needs can easily activate them with external switches. Event organizer Hal Evensen, an engineering physics professor, then distributes the toys to charities across southern Wisconsin. Volunteers receive some basic training, but they have to work together to figure out how to modify each toy, Evensen said.

Eight high school students from the tri-state area recently participated in the Plant Biotechnology Boot Camp held at UW-Platteville. The week-long residential camp offered hands-on learning opportunities in the areas of plant biotechnology, genetics, molecular biology, plant pathology and microbiology.

UW-Platteville recently wrapped up its inaugural summer coding camps and hackathon, introducing nearly 60 high school students to the rapidly expanding computer science and cybersecurity fields. The camps – focusing on computer games programming, esports, and cyber defense – were the first of their kind to be offered in the region.

The UW-Platteville Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering is offering three new, interactive summer coding camps for high school students.

UW-Platteville recently offered two courses to spark children's interest in STEM and interact with real-life industrial robots.