Alina Tweedle found out on her birthday that she was going to Manteca Unified’s summer session.
That was great news for the fifth-grade student at McParland Elementary School.
She’s one of the fifth and sixth graders enrolled this week in Scott Myers’ Intro to Video Game Design at Lathrop High.
“We have quite a few here who have great skill sets (for video game design),” said Myers, who teaches Computer Programming and Game Design as an LHS elective course to LHS students and MUSD’s be.tech Charter Academies. “They’re designing games with platform jumps and characters running through obstacles.”
Tweedle, for one, developed an elaborate game design with tables and Batman-like characters.
“It really started out as a girl,” she said of the design that eventually took the shape of DC’s Dark Knight character.
Tweedle and Carson Ballinger, a sixth grader from Walter Woodward Elementary School, were new to video game design.
They both enjoy playing video games. Tweedle is a fan of Mindcraft games while Ballinger enjoys the Halo series.
The fun part of Myers’ class is that students get to play video games.
“They’ll play Zork,” he said of the pioneering video game.
Developed in 1977, Zork was one of the earliest interactive fiction computer games, according to Myers.
“They’ll also play the 10 best and the 10 worst Nintendo video games,” he added. 
This is the second year that Myers has held the basic video game design class.
The 2017 STEM Summer Camp continues, with the following upcoming sessions:
uIntro to Robotics & Electronics (June 12 through June 15) – Project fee is $35 for those students entering seventh- through 10th- grades. Classes will be held at Manteca High, from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
uAstronomy Camp (June 12 through June 15) – Project fee is $10. Astronomy Camp will again be held in the MUSD RESC Building from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for incoming sixth- through eighth- grade students.
uAutomotive Basics for Girls (June 13 through June 15) – Project fee is $25. Girls entering eighth- through 11th- grades can learn automotive basics at the Lindbergh Education Center, from 9 a.m. to noon.
uChop Chop Cook (June 20 through June 22) – Project fee is $25. Sessions will be held in the district office complex’s be.tech Charter Academies, from 11 a.m. through 1:30 p.m. Chop Chop Cook is offered to those entering third- through sixth- grades.
uChop Chop Cook (June 27 to June 29) – Project fee is $25. This Chop Chop Cook class is offered to incoming seventh- through ninth- grade students at be.tech, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

For more information or to register, click on to www.mantecausd.net/schools/mels-garage.